Preparations
by LuckyDuck29
Summary: Sequel to Season’s changes. Spinelli prepares to be a father, while also dealing with all the craziness going on in Port Charles. Please see my profile for the link to the ld29info forum for the author’s notes.
1. Chapter 1

New Year's Day, 2008, in Port Charles was very somber for most of its residents. There had been three murders and one attempted murder in the past few months. The killer was still running around free because no one had been able to catch him. There were grieving families and friends, and citizens living in fear. But there was also the prospect that things would get better. It was a new year, after all. A new year always meant new possibilities.

As she stood by her sister's grave, Georgie was trying to convince herself that Maxie's killer would be caught soon, before he claimed another victim. But all she kept seeing and hearing was the last morning they had spent together. Maxie had been her usual obnoxious self and Georgie had scolded her for not checking her messages. Someone had sent Georgie a text message asking if she'd seen Maxie. If Georgie had known then that it was Maxie's killer who had sent her the text, things could have been so different now.

A figure dressed all in black watched Georgie from the shadows. He had gotten back at Maxie. She had learned the hard way that you didn't betray him and get away with it. He had spent Thanksgiving with her, giving her a false sense of renewed security that they would end up together. But he had really just been biding his time, waiting for the perfect opportunity. When Maxie least expected it, he had gotten his revenge.

Lulu talked and laughed with Spinelli, as she helped him move his things into his new apartment. He had just left Jason's house, which he called Casa De Stone Cold to move into the apartment he would share with his child when he or she was born. She was struck again by how much her friend had matured since the day she'd met him. They had been grabbed by men who worked for Lorenzo Alcazar and had become friends very quickly since then. Lulu supposed being in danger together would do that to the most unlikely people under most circumstances.

What Spinelli and Lulu didn't know was that another figure was watching them. He didn't dress in black; he just kept himself hidden. This man was angry. He had killed before and would kill again if either of these two gave him cause. In fact, killing one of them would solve a big problem. He smiled, picturing the sounds as his victim's life was squeezed away. Maybe it wouldn't come to that, but the figure would be happy if it did. But he would only go that far if it became absolutely necessary.

Spinelli and Lulu looked at each other in surprise when there was a knock at his door. Who could be visiting already? The furniture had been delivered, so unless they had forgotten something, it wasn't another delivery.

Spinelli smiled when he opened the door to Stone Cold and Nurse Nadine.

"Warmest greetings!"

"Hi," Nadine said as Jason nodded with a smile. "I brought some refreshments and then ran into Jason in the hall."

She pulled a bag from behind her back, containing the food of the Gods and some other foods from Kelly's, including waffles and muffins.

"And I thought you could use some help moving the furniture," Jason said.

"Thank you both," Spinelli said, smiling and taking the bag from Nadine.

Spinelli and the girls talked while they moved and organized things. Jason's part of the conversation consisted mostly of questions about where Spinelli wanted to put a particular item of furniture and then Spinelli helped him put it where it belonged.

A few minutes later, there was another knock. This time it was Georgie. Spinelli could tell she had been crying.

"Rough day?" he asked, kissing her forehead.

"I just visited Maxie's grave," she said quietly. "My parents wanna go through her things today. I don't know if I can."

"I'm sure they'll understand if you can't. Come and eat something; you need to keep your strength up."

"Are you all moved in?"

"We have one more trip to make," Lulu said, coming out of the kitchen. "Nadine and I are organizing the kitchen while Jason and Spinelli are taking care of the bedroom."

Georgie and Spinelli made the last trip to and from Casa De Stone Cold. Spinelli grinned as he closed the door to his regrettably pink room for the last time. He had been grateful to have a place to stay, but he had often wished he could change the color. Georgie had told him once that most guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes in a pink room. Spinelli had lasted over a year. He might still have a pink room in his new place, but if he did, it would be for his daughter, not him. His new room reflected his personality only. For the first time since he'd left Tennessee, he had a place that belonged to him alone.

By the time everything was organized, it was dinner time and everyone was hungry again, so they ordered pizza. Later, Nadine had to leave for her shift at the hospital, Jason had to go take care of something for Sonny and Lulu left to meet Logan. Spinelli looked intently at his very new girlfriend.

"I have one very important goal for the very near future," he said seriously, "other than my parental goals."

"What's that?"

"When I told you that you were beautiful and when I complimented you at Kelly's the day we got the paternity test results, you gave me a certain look. It lit up your whole face, lighting up my entire day. My goal is to put that look back on your face."

"If anyone can do that, you can," she said, kissing him. "I wish I could have spent New Year's Eve with you, but I didn't feel right leaving my parents."

"I wouldn't have felt right if you'd left them for me either. You needed to be together last night."

She smiled slightly. A lot of guys wouldn't have understood. A lot of guys would have tried to convince her that being with them would make her feel better because she wouldn't be spending the New Year in the house where Maxie had been killed. That might have been true, but she had needed to be with her parents last night more than she had needed to be away from the house. Spinelli had just effectively told her that she owed him no explanations.

She thought of the prospect of going through Maxie's things and Spinelli saw her face fall again. He pulled her into his arms and rubbed her back. She sighed as her arms went around him. She held him tightly, thankful that he always seemed to know what she needed.

"This year is going to be better," he promised quietly. "We're gonna catch the killer, and I don't think anything worse can happen. I mean, last year was horrible in a lot of ways; the hostage crisis, the sabotage at the hospital, the black and white ball. Things can only get better."

"I hope you're right," she said against his shoulder.

She wasn't crying, but the despondency in her voice broke Spinelli's heart.

"We have a lot to look forward to. You're going to Ibiza in September. I'm gonna have a baby in June. Plus, we have a budding romance. I know none of that can replace your sister," he said quickly, "but Maxie would want you to be happy." He lifted her head gently and looked into her eyes. "I intend to make you happy."

"You do," she said, smiling again and giving him a passionate kiss.

Later, as she drove home, she decided he was right. This year could not possibly be worse than the last. Her dreams were being realized. She was going to spend her Junior year abroad and Spinelli had finally noticed her. He wanted her as much as she wanted him.

She smiled as she pulled into her driveway, thinking that everything had balance. The horror of losing Maxie had been balanced with the joy of having Spinelli love her back. She was still hurting over Maxie, but she was determined to prove Spinelli right. This year was going to be better for both of them.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Jason asked Spinelli to meet him at the hospital. Formidable Nurse Epiphany had been on the phone with her son when his car had crashed. She wanted Spinelli and Jason to find him.

He had crashed on a highway in Florida. Spinelli gave Epiphany the information and he and Jason waited for the police to call in case there was anything else they could do. Shortly after Epiphany had called the police to tell them where Stan was, she got another call from them. Spinelli doubted the time seemed short to her. He and Jason watched her face as she got the news.

"No," she said, beginning to cry, "there must be some mistake."

Spinelli felt his stomach drop. Stan was dead. Spinelli and Stan had not been friends; they had been rivals in Cyberspace and in the non-cyber world they shared a mutual, if grudging, respect. Spinelli knew Stan to be a good person in both worlds and never wished him dead, and he never wished anyone to go through the kind of pain Nurse Johnson was now experiencing, and would experience for the rest of her life. What would he do if he got a call that he'd lost his child.

Suddenly wanting to see his unborn baby's mother, he went to Jolene's room. Nothing had changed, but he could see the bulge in her belly and put his hand over it. That was his baby in there. It still didn't seem real to him at times.

He began to talk to Jolene. He believed what he'd read about comatose patients being able to hear what was being said to them. He usually rambled on about whatever popped into his head, or about things that he was thinking about frequently. He had told her about his blossoming friendship with her sister and his new found romance with Georgie. He told her about his new understanding, and consequently strengthened friendship, with Lulu. Now he told her about the move into his new apartment and his plans for the baby, and he told her about Stan.

After talking to her for a few minutes, he felt the baby move. He stared at Jolene's belly in amazement. That was his child in there and he had just felt him or her move. He had learned from research he had done on online medical web sites that it was normal to feel the baby move between sixteen and twenty-two weeks. Jolene was seventeen weeks pregnant. Spinelli was thankful that he could be here for the first movement. The circumstances of the pregnancy were far from normal. This gave him a sense of a normal fatherhood experience, even if the mother couldn't be here in the normal sense.

Nadine walked in and saw Spinelli staring at her sister's belly with his hand over it.

"Are you OK?" she asked, thinking he might be thinking about Epiphany's loss and his child.

"Come here," he said with a note of quiet excitement in his voice.

She did and he put her hand where his had been. Her niece or nephew was moving. She smiled at him, glad that he was here for this experience.

"This is real, isn't it?" she asked with mixed feelings.

"There are times when it doesn't seem so," he said, "but feeling the baby move just made it real in a way that it wasn't before." He paused, still hearing poor Epiphany's cries from the nurse's station. "It's even harder now to imagine what it would be like to lose my Innocent One , as poor Nurse Johnson has lost her son." He paused again, looking at the fetal monitor that had been strapped to Jolene along with all the other machines. "The baby's OK, right?"

Nadine was quick to reassure him.

"Yeah, it's fine; this is just a precaution. Jolene can't tell us if something's wrong, so we put the fetal monitor there to make sure everything is normal."

"Good," Spinelli said, relaxing with a sigh of relief.

Next week would be the sonogram. He would be able to see his child and find out whether it was a boy or a girl. Then he would start making preparations for the baby's room and start picking out names.

"Do you think Jolene can feel the baby?"

"I don't know," Nadine said, looking into her sister's expressionless eyes. "I don't know if she feels anything."

She looked out the window and Spinelli could see that she was upset.

Did I say something wrong?"

"No," she sighed, "I just wonder sometimes if she felt anything for a long time. I mean, how could someone with feelings do all the awful things she did?"

"I know other people who have done awful things," he said, thinking of Sam and Maxie. "With them, certain events seem to trigger their darker sides; for some it can be a series of events. Your father's death seemed to be the catalyst for Jolene. If he had died in a different way, of natural causes for example, maybe it wouldn't have affected her the way it did. She would have grieved, of course, as you and your mother have, but maybe it wouldn't have made her so angry."

"It turned her into a revenge junky."

The hurt and anger in her voice made Spinelli put his arm around her impulsively. He felt no romantic feelings towards her; he was just comforting a friend. He knew Georgie wouldn't mind.

"I'm sure she saw it as justice," he said quietly.

"When does justice become revenge?"

"I don't know. I guess it depends on the circumstances, and the person."

"Someone killed Epiphany's son."

Spinelli nodded.

"He used to work for Sonny and Jason, right? Was his death for justice, or revenge?"

"I wish I knew. He was a good person, and so is Nurse Epiphany; neither of them deserve this."

She looked up at him with haunted eyes.

"Spinelli, what kind of town, what kind of world, is this baby gonna be born into? I mean, his or her own mother is a murderer! We have stranglers, mobsters-" She stared at him then, horrified at what she'd just said. "I'm sorry; I know Jason's your friend and he's basically a good person, and that you're not a-"

"It's OK," he said quickly. "I know what you meant. Port Charles is dangerous, but so is the rest of the world. We can't live in fear of bringing children into the world because of the dangers or human beings will become an endangered species."

"Aren't we already?" Her tone was bitter and she sounded like she was going to cry as she looked at her sister. "I mean, look at what we do to each other!"

He gently turned her shoulders so she was facing him and took her face in his hands to make her look into his eyes.

"The Jackal firmly believes in balance. You can't have good without evil. Just because Jolene did evil things doesn't mean there's no good in her; if that were true she never would have saved me. If she were purely evil her smile would not have been so dazzling; that was one of the things about her that captivated me. Georgie's sister, Maxie, did awful things to Fair Lulu and others, but Georgie talked to me of her goodness. There was a side of Maxie that not many people knew. There was a side to Jolene that no one knew, except the MedCam representative. For all we know, he could have fueled that pain and anger already inside her until he convinced her that sabotaging this hospital was an affective way to exact vengeance on the hospital where your father died."

"I'm never gonna know, am I?" she asked hopelessly. "Jolene's the only one who can tell me."

"She might wake up. There's not much hope of that now, according to the life saving ones, but who knows what could happen later? The future isn't written, to quote one of my favorite movie trilogies."

She smiled for the first time since she'd gotten on this depressing train of thought.

"I like them, too, and you're right. But we have another future to think about." She smiled down at her sister's belly. "Can I ask you something?"

He nodded.

"May I be with you for the sonogram?"

"Of course. This baby is your family, too. I want Aunt Nadine to be an integral part of my Innocent One's life."

She smiled and they began speculating on the child's future. He or she would, of course, have Spinelli's cyber skills, but he was hoping to make his child more socially skilled than he was. Maybe the baby would grow up to be a nurse like Aunt Nadine.

Nadine became pensive again at that thought.

"The baby won't know about what Jolene did to the hospital until absolutely necessary," Spinelli promised.

"But when he does find out-"

"Then you and I will help him or her deal with it."

He smiled suddenly and took her hand, placing it over his. The baby was moving again.

"It'll be OK," he said with a quiet confidence that made her believe him.


	3. Chapter 3

Georgie felt completely drained as she walked into Kelly's for her shift. She had just spent the morning going through Maxie's things with Mack and Felicia. They had planned to do it last night, but it was too late by the time Mack had gotten home; Georgie and Felicia had already been asleep. The task had taken even more out of her than she'd thought it would.

Logan and Coop were sitting near the counter, discussing the Text Message Killer case. Logan was obviously pumping Coop for information. Georgie suddenly hated both of them with a passion that shocked her. Logan was a pig and Coop was most likely the man who had murdered her sister. No wonder they were best friends.

She smiled when Spinelli walked in, having just come from the hospital. But her smile died when Logan spoke to him.

"Have you seen Lulu today?"

Spinelli shook his head.

"The Jackal has not spoken to The Blonde One since she helped him move yesterday. She said she was meeting you for dinner."

"Yeah, well, she was supposed to meet me for dinner," Logan said belligerently, "but she never showed up. The last time I talked to her she said she was with you, which means you were the last person to see her."

Spinelli shrugged.

"Where is she?" Logan demanded, grabbing him by the arm and squeezing hard. "You think you're gonna be with her and she's always telling me you're her best friend, so you know where she is. Best friends confide in each other, right? Is she with Zacchara?"

"Let him go!" Georgie said furiously, coming up to them.

"Not until he tells me what he knows!"

"You are a coward and a bully!" Georgie said. "Who do you think you are?" Her voice was rising; she was more furious than she could ever remember being. "You think you can just go around grabbing people and demanding information? Get your hands off him!"

She was yelling at the top of her lungs now. On the word hands, she slapped him across the face as hard as she could. He released Spinelli, too surprised to remember to hold him. Georgie continued, too lost in her fury to realize Spinelli was free.

"What makes you think it's any of your business what Lulu does, or what Spinelli knows? You don't care about Lulu; you just wanna get her into bed again! You wanna get her to trust you again, but then you're gonna move on to another woman like you did my sister! Or did you bet someone else that you could get Lulu back? You filthy pig!"

She began pounding on his shoulders. She knew she was being irrational, but she couldn't stop herself. Coop had left as Spinelli had come in and all Georgie was thinking was that she couldn't hurt Maxie's killer. But Logan had hurt Lulu and grabbed Nadine and Carly, slept with Maxie and then slammed her against a wall after Lulu had disappeared, and now he was grabbing Spinelli and trying to intimidate information out of him that he probably didn't even have. The killer was a coward; so was Logan. If she couldn't get one, she could at least try to do something about the other. She knew it didn't make any sense, but there it was.

"Whoa, Georgie!" Mike said, shocked.

He had come out of his office when Georgie had begun to yell, vaguely reminded of the day Spinelli had blown up at Maxie and Logan. Now, here Logan was again, causing more trouble.

Spinelli got behind her and tried to pull her away.

"Georgie, stop!" he and Mike said together.

"This is most unwise and will not bring back your sister," Spinelli said urgently.

Hearing him behind her, becoming aware of his hands on her shoulders and that he was trying to pull her away from Logan, some semblance of reason came back to her. So did the images of going through Maxie's things, finding her on the floor, then seeing Logan talking with her suspected killer and then trying to bully Spinelli. She let him pull her off Logan, starting to cry.

Spinelli took her out to the alley behind Kelly's, feeling shocked and worried. He had never seen Georgie do anything like that before. Logan deserved it, yes, but it still floored him to see Georgie beating him up.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed into his shoulder. "I'm sorry; We went through Maxie's things before I got here. Then I saw him talking to Coop and then he grabbed you and he was yelling at you and I- I just lost it!"

"It's OK," he whispered. "You have every right to lose it after what you've been through. It's OK."

He stood against the wall with her in his arms as she cried, alternating between stroking her hair and rubbing her back.

"I can't believe I did that," she cried.

"Neither can I; you were forceful and magnificent. You and Fair Lulu together could take him; she slapped him, too, after he betrayed her."

He knew he was rambling and that what he'd just said probably didn't make a lot of sense, but he wanted to say something, anything, that would make her stop crying. Those lost sounds made him want to cry himself.

He was vaguely pleased that he'd managed not to finished that last sentence with the first thing he had thought to say, which was "when he slept with your sister." He never meant to be tactless, but there were times when his mouth worked faster than his brain. In this, as in many other things, though, he was improving. He had improved a lot since coming to Port Charles.

Mike came out as she lifted her head. The tears had stopped, but she was still sniffling.

"You OK, Honey?" he asked gently. "You wanna go home?"

She took a deep breath and shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Spinelli asked. "I can go with you if you don't wanna be alone."

She nodded.

"Did you eat anything today?"

"I don't remember," she said with a tired sigh.

"Well," Mike said, "then we're gonna have to make sure you do. Come in and eat before you start your shift."

Sharing waffles had become a tradition for Spinelli and Georgie; it always seemed to make them both feel better. As they ate, they talked about anything they wanted to, but they had an unspoken agreement that whatever was bothering them was off limits for that period. So they didn't discuss Maxie, or Stan, or the Text Message Killer, and especially not Logan.

Mike had made him leave before going into the alley to check on Georgie and told him that if he ever saw Logan grabbing, or even raising his voice to, anyone in this place again he would be banned. Mike would take out a restraining order if necessary. He was fed up with the punk.

Spinelli kissed her before leaving, their first public kiss. She smiled at him, then went to clock in. As he left, he knew what he had to do. He knew the Zacchara situation was important, but he also knew that Mr. Corinthos, Sir, had lost his objectivity. Stone Cold was handling it, but finding the killer was important to all three of them. They knew it wasn't Johnny and what little they had on Coop, though completely circumstantial, was compelling enough to make Stone Cold himself believe it was possible that Cooper was the killer. Spinelli needed to either prove or disprove it or Georgie would never have any peace and he needed his master's guidance.


	4. Chapter 4

Jason was busy when Spinelli got home. Epiphany and Elizabeth were there. Epiphany wanted Jason to find Stan's killer. Spinelli promised to help.

"I'm gonna hold you both to that," she said, giving both of them the same look Nadine had given Spinelli that morning when she'd asked what the baby was being born into.

He checked his messages as Jason had a private conversation with Epiphany. There was one from Lulu, but from a number he didn't recognize. As he heard her frantic message, he realized why and knew he had to talk to Jason immediately.

"Spinelli, it's Lulu. Somebody grabbed me; I don't know who! Please, tell Jason! Just hurry! With all the speed dialing I don't know anybody else's phone number but yours and I have no idea where I am! There's a painting of a guy in a robe and he's carrying a spade and a watering can."

She was cut off then. Her captors had obviously caught her again and were taking her away. The last thing he heard before the end of the message was her terrified scream.

He thought hard about her message; a picture of a guy in a robe could mean a monk. He went online and began researching monasteries in the vicinity of Port Charles. There was one, on the river bluffs right outside Port Charles, and a legend that went with it. The legend said that the Saint who founded the monastery wanted to plant a garden and was told that he could have any land he was able to plow before sunset, so he walked, dragging his spade behind him. There was a picture that matched the painting Lulu had described; the saint carried his spade and a watering can.

Spinelli had taken four years of Latin. He could go in, disguise himself as one of the monks, find Lulu and guide her out. But he knew he'd need backup in case they were caught. He still needed Stone Cold's help.

He apprised Jason of the situation and they left. It was fairly easy for Spinelli to get into the monastery. Jason waited by the front wall, listening via walky talky for Spinelli to let him know when he found Lulu and if they got into trouble.

Spinelli heard the monks talking about an unfortunate girl who was on drugs and had witnessed a crime that had forced her uncle to lock her up in the monastery. Spinelli wanted to know who this mysterious uncle was and had every intention of finding out once he rescued Lulu. The uncle was no relative of Lulu's and was going to answer for putting his friend in danger.

The monk guarding the door to Lulu's prison let Spinelli in, being completely fooled by the disguise. He looked around, but didn't see Lulu. But he did see the hole in the wall; she had freed some rocks. He smiled admiringly at his friend's resourcefulness as he went through the hole to look for her.

Lulu was freezing. She was also lost. She looked and saw a skeleton on the ground. She screamed and fell, hurting her ankle. That was where Spinelli found her.

"Fair Lulu? Are you OK?"

She looked up at him, confused.

"Spinelli?"

He nodded, smiling with relief.

They went back to Lulu's room, thinking that was the best way because it was familiar. Neither of them wanted to get lost in these tunnels.

"Hey, Padre," the guard called when they got back, "what's taking so long?"

"Oh no," Lulu said.

"You're gonna be sorry you did that," the guard said having come in just as they had crawled back through the hole.

Spinelli knocked the guard out and they ran.

"Thank you both," Lulu said by the front wall.

"Do you have any idea why you were kidnapped?" Jason asked.

"No, all I know is that someone grabbed me outside of Kelly's and told someone named Moreau over the phone that I was the leverage they needed to make Johnny do what they wanted."

"This Moreau must be the uncle I heard the monks discussing," Spinelli said, then explained what he'd heard about Lulu.

"So the monks honestly thought they were helping," Lulu said. "That's good to know."

"Spinelli," Jason said as they reached the car, "when we get back, I want you to research Moreau. Can you do that using his connection to this monastery?"

"Yes," Spinelli said as Jason's cell rang.

Spinelli and Lulu got into the car and closed the doors, giving Jason privacy. It was Max, telling him that a Zacchara ship was traveling illegally through their shipping lanes.

"Take it out," Jason said grimly, "just like they took out ours."

On the way home, Jason got another call that Elizabeth and Jake had been in a fire. They stopped by Elizabeth's house and learned that Cameron was safe, but that Elizabeth had taken Jake to the hospital.

In the ER, they were shocked to find another potential catastrophe. The mechanic who frequented Kelly's had a bomb strapped to his chest and was threatening to blow up the hospital if his wife and unborn child didn't receive treatment.

This unfortunate man had recently been talking about his wife's medical problems, and his business problems, with the Senior Sir. Spinelli wondered again about his own child. What would he do if he or she were in danger and no one seemed to want to help. He couldn't honestly say that he would not resort to these desperate measures if he felt he had no other choice.

Jason tried to reason with Joe, but Monica blasted Jason for being the one responsible for Emily's death. What was she doing, Lulu and Spinelli silently wondered. They shared anxious looks. Did Monica want Joe to kill Jason? Joe threatened Jason with the bomb and Jason sat down, having no other choice.

Later, Nikolas came through the ER and challenged Joe. Lulu looked terrified now; her brother was now right in the middle of this and seemed to be enjoying himself.

"Is he having a blackout?" Spinelli whispered to Lulu.

She had told him a few days before that Nikolas had a brain tumor and that it was inoperable, which was the cause of his rages. Lulu nodded as Sam began to try to talk Nikolas down before something deadly happened.

After Nikolas was sedated and taken away to a room, Jason, Spinelli and Lulu overheard Sam and Joe talking about a car that he had kept from the people who had come to take the garage. He wanted his boy to be able to get behind the wheel of that car someday.

Jason stood up and began to talk to Joe about gambling. Spinelli and Lulu exchanged confused looks. What did gambling have to do with anything.

Spinelli began to think that Joe wasn't completely sane. Yes, he'd been under a lot of pressure, but he was taking a huge gamble with his wife and child's lives. It suddenly hit Spinelli where Jason was going with this conversation. Would he endanger his child in order to get him or her the help needed? Would he actually take a bomb into the hospital where he wanted his child to be treated? Maybe Joe wasn't insane; maybe Stone Cold had figured out what Spinelli was now beginning to suspect.

Joe was becoming agitated. As he threatened to let go of the bomb, Spinelli began to pray to every God and Goddess he could think of that his suspicions and Jason's assumption were right. If this bomb was real, it would go off if Joe let it go for any reason.

To everyone's relief, there was no explosion. Commissioner Scorpio came in and arrested Joe, who begged Sam to check on his wife and tell her he did it for her and the baby. Dr. Ford ordered Mrs. Smith to be taken to the county, but Nikolas threatened to withdraw all the money he'd put into the hospital if that order was carried out. Like it or not, Ford was allowing this patient to be treated.


	5. Chapter 5

At Lulu's request, after checking on Jake and Elizabeth, Jason dropped her off at Logan's. She knocked on the door and he opened it almost immediately. He looked furious.

"Where have you been?" he demanded, sounding half like a petulant child and half like a parent whose child had broken curfew.

"It's a long story. What happened to your face?"

"Never mind that," he said, rubbing his cheek, which was swollen from Georgie's slap. "Tell me your long story."

"I was kidnapped and held in a monastery by someone who wanted to use me as leverage against Johnny, then Spinelli and Jason saved me and Jason dropped me off here, after we went to the-"

"Spinelli? I asked him where you were and he said he didn't know. That little freak lied to me?"

Lulu was getting angry now.

"Don't call him that! No, he didn't lie to you; I left him a voicemail and he got it later. He found me and he and Jason got me out of the monastery. Then we went to the hospital and Jason had to defuse a bomb scare."

"What?"

"There was a guy with a fake bomb-"

"You expect me to believe any of this crap? You were either with Spinelli the whole time and he lied to me or you were with Johnny. Which is it?"

"I don't like this attitude, Logan. You don't own me."

"Answer the question! He yelled.

"What is wrong with you?"

"You're keeping secrets and lying to me and I don't like it! Why would someone kidnap you to use you against Johnny unless you were more involved with him than you've been leading me to believe. Why are you and Spinelli so involved that you helped him move? Why was he the one you called if you needed to get away from a kidnapper?"

"Spinelli is my best friend, Logan; you know that. As for Johnny, we're just friends, too."

"You have way too many guys in your life."

"You don't get to decide that!"

Now she was yelling, too. No one owned her and no one told her who she could and couldn't spend time with.

"I'm your boyfriend!"

"Yeah, you're my boyfriend, not my keeper! If I wanna spend time with Spinelli or Johnny, I'm gonna spend time with Spinelli or Johnny and there's nothing you can do about it! I'm my own person and if you don't like it you're gonna be cut outa my life completely!"

"Where were Johnny and Spinelli when you were freaking out over your father's surgery?"

"The only reason you were there was because you happened to be with Scott when Bobby called him."

She knew that wasn't fair; he had helped her, but she was angry.

"Nice, Lulu. Next time I'll just let you freak out alone like you Spencers like to do."

"I'm sorry, but you don't get to give me orders and make demands. I'm trying to tell you what happened and you're acting like I'm lying."

"What reason do I have to trust you, Lulu? I mean, you went to the peer, supposedly to order Cuban cigars for your father, who has a heart condition and just had surgery? You were obviously lying."

"You mean like you lied to me all those months when you pretended to care about me but you were really prostituting yourself with Maxie?"

He slapped her. She stared at him, stunned, both physically and emotionally. Had he really just hit her? She rubbed her cheek and the sting brought the reality home. Logan had just slapped her.

She ran out of Logan's apartment and to Kelly's, where her car was. Logan gave her a head start, knowing she would have to go to Kelly's to get her car if what she'd told him was true. He hadn't seen her car when he'd been there before, but what he didn't know was that it had been blocked from his view at the time by Coop's police cruiser.

He gave her enough time to get to Kelly's, then went there himself, thinking she might stop in for something, or that she might feel safer in public after what he'd just done. He intended to make her talk to him. She wasn't going to just leave things the way they were; no woman just walked out on him like that.

Lulu ran as fast as she could to Kelly's and got in her car, then began driving in the direction of Jason's apartment. She was halfway there before she remembered that Spinelli wasn't living there anymore. She changed direction and went to his new apartment.

Logan fumed when he saw that Lulu's car was gone. She had lied to him after all; he had known it. Her story was just too far fetched to be true. Maybe she had gone to the hospital to see Luke.

He found out about the bomb scare, and that Luke had been released, when he got to the hospital. OK, so that part of it was true at least. She had hitchhiked the last time he had hurt her and that was how she'd met Johnny. Maybe she'd gone to him. He discounted Spinelli, thinking incorrectly that he wouldn't be able to protect Lulu from Logan. But Spinelli would be able to help Logan find her. Determined to acquire the services of Lulu's best friend one way or the other, he headed in the direction of Jason's penthouse. If Johnny had been behind lulu's supposed kidnapping, even indirectly, Logan thought Spinelli would be at Jason's trying to find him and deal with him.

Spinelli looked up from his laptop when he heard running footsteps on the stairs leading up to his apartment. Either someone was here to see him, or the person across the hall. The frantic knock at his door answered his unspoken question almost immediately.

"Spinelli, it's me!"

Fair Lulu, and she sounded terrified. He opened the door quickly. She was very pale, except for the angry red handprint on her left cheek.

"What happened!" he asked, horrified.

She began to cry, surprising both of them. He pulled her into the apartment and sat her down. He sat next to her and hugged her protectively, forcefully reminded of the night Maxie had died and he had held Georgie in the same way.

Lulu felt ashamed. She had promised herself a long time ago that she would never be one of those girls who fell into abusive relationships and then stayed in them, continuously going back to their abusers. Now she was one of those girls. Logan had made that bet with Maxie. He had lied to her for months. That day in the Coffee House he had abused both her and Spinelli and she had still decided to pursue a relationship with him. Then, after finding out he'd lied to her and cheated on her, she had taken him back. What was wrong with her? Her friends and family would say nothing was wrong, that it wasn't her, but there had to be. Why else would she have been with Logan in the first place?

"Who did it, Lulu? Tell me who hit you."

Spinelli's gentle tone made her cry harder. She had been so mean to him where Logan was concerned, and Johnny, too, for that matter. He had forgiven her after she'd abused him countless times. She was no better to Spinelli than Logan was to her.

"Logan," she managed, but couldn't get any further for a while.

"OK," he whispered, hugging her tighter. "You don't have to explain any further now. It's OK; he can't hurt you anymore."

He forced his fury away. On some level, and not a very deep level either, he had known that was what she would say. They had dropped her off at his place, after all, and Logan did have a history of hurting women. But Lulu needed him calm now. But if he ever got the chance, he was going to give Logan Hayes the pounding of his life.

"He was so angry," she said when she could speak again. "He was demanding to know where I'd been and when I tried to tell him he thought I was lying. I mean, I know it sounded crazy with me being in the monastery and then the bomb scare, but-"

"It doesn't matter; he doesn't get to hit you. No one has a right to hurt you just because they don't like what you're saying or doing."

She knew he wasn't thinking about the way she treated him, but he had just inadvertently fueled her feelings of guilt.

"He was just yelling at me until I brought up the bet he made with Maxie and then he just lost control."

"Do not blame yourself," Spinelli said firmly. "He decided to hit you, Lulu; you did not cause him to do that. He grabbed you, he forced a kiss on you, he cheated on you and he struck you; it was all him. He gave you no choices in any of those instances. Oh your poor face," he said suddenly, staring at the handprint, looking and sounding as if he might start crying himself. "You need ice."

He jumped up from the couch and ran to the kitchen for the ice pack, needing to focus on something other than that livid print on his friend's face, needing to do something productive. Today had been so crazy and he had felt powerless during the bomb scare, not to mention feeling scared that Lulu would be hurt or worse before he could get to her. She had been hurt, not by the phantom known as Moreau, who Spinelli was having trouble finding in Cyberspace, but by The Unworthy One, again.

Realizing that Spinelli was right about her lack of choice and Logan's violent and deceitful behavior, Lulu was finally able to stop crying. She hated that she had given Logan that much power over her, but that was over now. She was never going to fall for his lies again. She was through with him for good. She had no idea that she and Spinelli would come face to face with him again before this day was over.


	6. Chapter 6

Spinelli wasn't at Jason's, so Logan decided to look for Lulu in all the logical places. No one helped him, of course, because no one wanted Logan to be with Lulu. He would get even with all of them in time, but first he had to find Lulu and make things right. He wasn't going to lose her over one minor transgression. If she had forgiven him for getting her into bed on a bet and then cheating on her with Maxie, he had no doubt that she would forgive him for one slap. After all, he hadn't meant to hit her; it had just happened. He would promise her it would never happen again and she would believe him. Women were like that; Logan had been showing Lulu what she wanted to see for months and she'd fallen for it every time.

She wasn't at the Quartermaine Mansion, she hadn't gone back to Kelly's and she would have no reason to go back to the hospital, unless she wanted to see Elizabeth. He stopped there and asked Elizabeth if she'd seen her. Elizabeth didn't seem to judge them. She told him she hadn't seen her in a few days and he left, deciding to check the docks, the boathouse and her parents' boat. She wasn't in any of those places. Logan became angrier the longer it took to find her. He heard about an explosion at the docks and Johnny Zacchara had apparently been on the ship that had exploded. "Good riddance," Logan thought triumphantly. "One less guy in Lulu's life that I have to worry about." Lulu wasn't with him. There was only one other place he could think of that she would have gone and that thought made him more angry than ever.

Spinelli went with Lulu to the police station. She reported Logan for assault and the cops went to find him, then Spinelli took her back to his apartment. She didn't want to go back to the mansion and have Tracey asking questions about what had happened to her face. The ice pack had kept it from swelling too badly, but it was still obvious that someone had hit her. At Spinelli's insistence, she would spend the night in his bed and he would sleep on the couch. She had protested, but he would accept no arguments.

Georgie had come to talk to Mack while Spinelli and Lulu were at the station. Lulu was giving her statement and Spinelli took Georgie aside to talk to her. He had planned to call her later, but now they could have this conversation in person.

"I need to tell you something."

She gave him a worried look.

"No, it's not bad; at least, not- well, it is bad, but not- I just wanted you to know in the interest of- open communication?"

She looked puzzled now.

"The Unworthy One has proven his unworthiness yet again, and this time for once and for all. He hit Lulu."

"What?" Georgie asked, shocked.

"That's why we're here; she's reporting him. But what I wanted to tell you was that she's gonna spend the night at my place; I'm gonna sleep on the couch. I just wanted to be honest with you about it so you wouldn't think there was anything more going on. I know you were worried when you revealed your true feelings to me that I was still in love with Lulu."

She smiled at him, putting her arm around his waste.

"Thank you."

She kissed him. He was glad she understood. He knew a lot of women would be jealous. He had thought she'd understand, but he didn't want her to come by and be surprised to see Lulu at his place, possibly still in a bathrobe, and worry that he was cheating on her. They had only been together for a few weeks and he and Lulu had a history of sorts. He wouldn't have blamed Georgie for being worried, but he didn't want her to be. He wanted her to know she was the only one he wanted to be with.

"I like what we have," he said seriously, looking into her eyes. "I don't have to prove myself to you because you see me for me. You accept me for who I am and I don't have to pretend to be something I'm not. Part of me will always love Lulu, but you're the one I choose to be with. Lulu is my friend, but you're my girlfriend. I don't want you to ever worry that you're gonna lose me to her."

For the first time since before Maxie's death, Spinelli saw that look on Georgie's face, the look he had promised the day before that he would put back on her face, the look that made his entire day better.

Back at the apartment, Lulu felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. She and Spinelli talked and laughed like old times, like before she had chosen Logan. She knew how badly that decision had hurt Spinelli and counted herself lucky that he still wanted to be her friend. She had allowed Logan to break something between her and Spinelli and hadn't even realized it. Now that she really saw him for who he was, really knew that she never wanted to see him again, what had been broken could be repaired. They were both surprised to find how easy it was to fall back into the patterns of their friendship before Logan. The only thing that had changed between them was that Spinelli was no longer obsessed with getting her to notice him as more than a friend. Georgie had helped him to move on, to grow away from his obsession and into a real relationship with both parties wanting the same things.

Jason couldn't shake the feeling that Logan hadn't told him something when he came to the penthouse before. Why would Logan be looking for Spinelli? There was something about Logan's behavior that sent alarm bells clanging off in Jason's head. Acting on instinct, he had Milo tail Logan. If Spinelli was in danger, Jason wanted to know what was going on. That cowardly, bullying punk was not going to hurt his friend.

When Milo reported that Logan was heading in the direction of Spinelli's apartment, Jason got on his bike and went there, too, keeping at a safe distance to avoid Logan realizing he was being followed. Milo had to guard Sonny's kids after Max's shift, so Jason sent him to Carly's. He could handle Logan himself.

Spinelli and Lulu both jumped when there was a loud knock at the door. He looked through the peephole and saw that it was Logan.

"The Crabby Commando has come to try to reclaim his victim," he thought, glancing at Lulu.

"It's him, isn't it?" she whispered.

He nodded.

"Let me in, Spinelli," Logan ordered.

"Spinelli, don't," Lulu said urgently as he reached for the doorknob.

"Don't worry; just go into the bathroom and call the cops. Tell them he's here."

Lulu gave him a worried look over her shoulder as she ran quietly to the bathroom. She wanted to argue, but something told her not to. Her instincts told her this was not the time to go all "don't tell me what to do" on Spinelli. She was not going to start that again; she had done too much to hurt him already when he tried to help her. She needed him; she always had, and it was time she let him know it instead of pushing him away when it became convenient for her to avoid him. They finally had their friendship back the way it should be and she was doing nothing to mess it up again.

He waited until she closed the bathroom door, then opened the door to the apartment.

"Where's Lulu?"

"She told me what you did. Do you honestly think I'm gonna tell you where she is so you can hurt her again?"

He kept his voice conversational, only letting a hint of his fury show.

"You're gonna tell me anything I want you to tell me," Logan said, grabbing Spinelli by the arm again.

That was the last straw. Not only had The Knuckle Scraper struck Lulu, grabbed him, beat him up in front of Lulu, forced a kiss on her, cheated on her, lied to her for months and abused at least two other women that Spinelli knew of, but now he was trying to get Spinelli to tell him where Lulu was so he could force her into the same trap. That was not going to happen. Logan Hayes had hurt Spinelli, and the people he cared about, for the last time.

"You lay another finger on her over my dead body," Spinelli said through clenched teeth.

He punch Logan in the face as hard as he could. He was angrier than he'd ever been in his life. Logan stared at him in shock as blood spurted from his now broken nose. Spinelli was too angry to feel anything about what he'd just done, but if he'd been able to think about his feelings about breaking someone's nose at all, he would have been as shocked as Logan.

"Lulu sees you for who you really are and has no doubts anymore. That means I don't have to try to pretend to be civil to you anymore for her sake. I've taken all the crap from you that I'm ever gonna take, and so has Lulu. From now on, you're not gonna touch me, or Lulu, or anyone else who doesn't want you to touch them. Oh and by the way, do you know the cops are looking for you?"

Logan looked surprised.

"Yeah, that's right; Lulu reported you for assault. You're gonna spend the night in jail when they find you."

He didn't tell him Lulu had called them to tell them he was there. He didn't want Logan to know that Lulu was anywhere close by. He also didn't want Logan to run; he wanted him right where he was so the cops could show up and cuff him so Spinelli could be sure he couldn't hurt Lulu anymore.

Logan's shock was wearing off now. He was furious. Spinelli had just hit him; his nose was broken. Logan considered Spinelli to be an obstacle between him and Lulu. It was time to get rid of the obstacle. He reached for him again, this time intending to do some real damage. Even as angry as he was, he knew he couldn't kill Spinelli. If he did that, he would lose Lulu for sure. He didn't want to kill him, just to beat him into submission. Spinelli had found strength and courage lately that Logan didn't know he had; he was going to have to put him in the hospital to scare him into leaving Lulu alone and letting Logan do what he wanted. That was perfectly fine with Logan. The sooner he put Spinelli in his place, the better.

Spinelli saw what Logan was about to do and sidestepped, this time punching Logan in the eye to catch him off guard. He smiled grimly, noting that now Logan's eye was bleeding, as well as his nose.

"Logan!" a quiet, dangerous voice came from the doorway.

Spinelli and Logan looked and saw Jason, gun drawn, standing there. For the first time, Logan could see the reason Spinelli had given Jason the nickname Stone Cold and was actually afraid.

Jason didn't see the damage Spinelli had done to Logan's face because Logan's back was to him. He only saw Logan turn his head a little, so that his good eye could see Jason. He had seen a bruise before when Logan had showed up at the penthouse looking for Spinelli, but Spinelli had told him about Georgie's emotional outburst at Kelly's and Jason hadn't been surprised.

He couldn't see Spinelli either because Logan was blocking Jason's view of his friend. But Jason could feel Spinelli's rage and was completely surprised by that. Rage was not a word Jason had ever expected to use in connection with Spinelli, even if only in his own thoughts. What exactly was going on here? What had happened?

After calling the cops, Lulu peaked out through the bathroom door to see what was happening. She had no doubts that Logan would hurt Spinelli, with or without provocation. These two seemed to provoke each other just by being in the same room and she knew she was the reason for that. She also knew that Spinelli had a lot of reasons to hate Logan, but that Logan had no real reason to hate Spinelli except that Spinelli was Lulu's best friend.

She was afraid for Spinelli. Logan was bigger and stronger. Logan had military training. She didn't think Spinelli stood a chance.

Spinelli proved her dead wrong. She moved closer to the door, intending to go out and try to talk Logan down when he grabbed Spinelli's arm. But then she stared, as shocked as Logan, when Spinelli broke her X-boyfriend's nose. She stared at the two of them, frozen in shock. She had never seen Spinelli do anything violent, unless you counted knocking her out to keep her from getting herself and others killed, and knocking out the guard at the monastery in order to help her escape. This was the first time she'd ever actually seen him defend himself. She smiled. She had never been more proud of him.

But then she saw Logan grab for him again and she could tell by his body language that Spinelli was in serious danger now. Her shocked paralysis broke. She ran out, not registering Jason.

"Logan, stop; leave him alone!"

She stopped, seeing Jason in the doorway with his gun pointed at Logan's chest.

"The cops are on their way," she told Spinelli and Jason.

Logan glared at all of them, but didn't dare do anything with Jason's gun on him.

"You're gonna pay for this," he said to Spinelli. "You broke my nose!"

Spinelli couldn't help grinning. Logan sounded like he had a really bad cold; it made him sound like a whiny, petulant five-year-old.

Jason raised an eyebrow at Spinelli. Logan turned enough to let Jason see his bleeding face. The blood from his nose was still trickling, but his eye had stopped bleeding by now. That blow hadn't been as hard because Spinelli was also concentrating on sidestepping to keep from getting a beating himself. But the eye was swollen and there was blood crusting around it.

"You did that?"

"He hit Lulu," Spinelli said simply, without remorse.

Lulu showed Jason the fading handprint on her cheek and explained what had led up to it. Jason glared at Logan.

"I'm sorry," Logan said to Lulu. "I didn't mean to."

"Yeah, well, it's the first and last time you're ever gonna do it. I don't care whether or not you meant it, Logan. Spinelli was right; you don't get to hit me. You don't hit someone just because you don't like what they say or do. The cops are gonna take you to jail. I'm pressing charges and I don't care what happens in court; you and I are through. Don't ever come near me again."

"Lulu," a familiar voice said from behind Jason.

Everyone looked to see Lucky standing there with a pair of handcuffs in one hand and his gun in the other.

"What's going on here?" he demanded, glaring at everyone. "I got a call from Dispatch saying there was trouble at this address. Whose place is this and what are you all doing here?"

"This is my place," Spinelli said.

"You don't live with Jason anymore?"

Spinelli shook his head.

"You need to arrest Logan," Lulu said, showing Lucky her bruised cheek."

"Logan did that?" Lucky demanded.

"I went with her to report him about an hour ago," Spinelli said.

"What happened to him?" Lucky asked, indicating Logan, who was still trying to stop his nose from bleeding.

"Spinelli hit him for hitting me and grabbing him," Lulu said proudly, smiling at Spinelli.

Lucky stared at both of them.

"Did you do that, too?" he asked Spinelli, indicating Georgie's previous contribution to the rearrangement of the Crabby Commando's cranium.

Logan shook his head. Lucky looked at Spinelli for an answer; he also shook his head.

Logan glared at Spinelli, daring him to tell Lucky that Georgie had been the one to hit him that time. Spinelli said nothing. He refused to take the bate. He knew Logan wanted him to start talking too much and possibly cause unintentional trouble for Georgie and Spinelli was not going to do that.

"That happened before he came here, but The Jackal is not the one who delivered that particular blow."

Lucky arrested Logan for the assault on Lulu and disturbing the peace. Logan tried to get him to arrest Spinelli for assault because of his shiner and his broken nose, but Lulu had been watching through the bathroom door and made it clear to Lucky that Spinelli was only defending himself, and her. Lucky cuffed Logan and took him out to the police car. His nose had finally stopped bleeding.

"You two OK?" Jason asked.

Spinelli and Lulu nodded.

"How did Stone Cold know The Simian One would be trespassing into The Jackal's residence?" Spinelli asked Jason.

"I had a bad feeling when he came looking for you at the penthouse."

"Why would he be looking for The Jackal?"

"He probably wanted to try to force you to help him find me or tell you where I was," Lulu said. "I can't believe I took him back. What was I thinking?"

"You're free of him now," Spinelli said gently. "That's all that matters."

Jason nodded. Spinelli paused as the realization of what had just happened sunk in. Lulu and Jason saw his face become shocked.

"Oh my God!

"What?" Lulu asked.

"I hurt him! I actually broke someone's nose!"

She and Jason exchanged glances, then grinned at him affectionately. They both knew he had never done anything like that before. They could read his mixed feelings all over his face; shock, a little bit of guilt, pride that he'd been able to stand up for himself and Lulu and disbelief that he'd actually done something violent. Jason and Lulu exchanged another glance as Lulu hugged Spinelli. Even when he was forced to be violent, there was still a gentleness about him that they both hoped would never be lost. Again, Lulu counted herself lucky that the sweetest guy in Port Charles considered her to be his friend, even after all the mean things she had said and done to him since she had made the mistake of choosing Logan Hayes to be her boyfriend.


	7. Chapter 7

After Lulu went to bed, Spinelli sat on the couch, still trying to find Moreau. He was quickly coming to the conclusion that Moreau was not his real name; the guy was just too illusive. There seemed to be no background; there was a social security number, but Spinelli knew how easy it was, if you had the right knowledge, to fake one of those. But Moreau's mystery and illusiveness made Spinelli all the more determined to find him. He had kidnapped Lulu and held her captive. He had put his friend in danger as surely as Logan had. Logan was paying; Spinelli was going to make sure Moreau answered for his crimes, too.

He stared at a news article that had popped up on his news homepage. He kept up with current events in Port Charles because almost everyone he cared about, with the exception of his Granny in Tennessee, lived here. There had been an explosion at the docks, on the Corinthos Morgan shipping lanes. Had Jason been hurt? With a sudden horrible feeling in his stomach, he dialed Jason's number.

"I was just gonna call you," Jason said, sounding surprised.

"I just saw the news article about the explosion on the docks," Spinelli said with relief. "Were you there? Are you-"

"I wasn't there; I'm fine. But someone other than our guys took out that Zacchara boat and I need you to find out who. If it's an enemy of the Zacchara's-"

"It might be a friend of ours," Spinelli finished.

"Right. Have you found anything on Moreau?"

Spinelli explained his reasons for thinking Moreau was an alias and said he would keep looking.

After he hung up with Jason, Spinelli looked through the security camera footage at the docks at the time of the explosion. He didn't have to hack into them because Jason frequently needed him to have access to them. Spinelli knew Mr. Corinthos, Sir, was not happy about Spinelli having access to that information, but he also knew Jason trusted The Jackal.

He stared in surprise at what he found. Johnny Zacchara had blown up his own boat. Why would he do that? He called Jason back and gave him the information, trying to be as quiet as possible so Lulu couldn't overhear, but trying to speak loud enough so that Jason wouldn't have trouble hearing.

"I think I know why he did it," Jason said. "He doesn't like anyone telling him what to do. Moreau had Lulu; maybe Johnny knew that and decided to teach Moreau a lesson."

Spinelli smiled slightly, thinking of Lulu's reaction if she even thought someone was trying to give her an order. She had that in common with Johnny. The smile faded as the implications of that thought hit him. Johnny obviously cared enough about Lulu to stay away from her. If Stone Cold was right and Johnny had known Moreau had Lulu, that would be the only reason he wouldn't have come after her himself. Spinelli's opinion of the Septic Son went up a little. Maybe he wasn't so septic after all, at least not intentionally. Or maybe he didn't care and had decided to let whatever happened to Lulu happen. Jason was giving Johnny the benefit of the doubt. Spinelli decided to try to do the same.

But it worried him that Lulu reacted so strongly to people trying to tell her what to do. It had gotten her into trouble more than once; Spinelli himself had had to resort to Crabby Commando tactics in order to keep her from getting herself killed. If she teamed up with Johnny, who was equally opposed to listening to people, Spinelli could do little or nothing to protect her. She could get herself killed at worst, or kidnapped again at best, just by associating with Johnny.

This wasn't the case with Spinelli and he knew it. Most people didn't take him seriously, and his only real association to the mob was his friendship with Stone Cold and the fact that he was their tech support. He never participated in the physical aspects unless Jason needed him to have his back, and even then Stone Cold was in charge. Someone might kidnap Spinelli to get Jason to do what they wanted, but Spinelli's association with Lulu would not cause her harm, unless she happened to be with him like she was the day Evil Al's men had grabbed them.

"Keep looking for Moreau," Jason said. "He's our main priority right now."

"But what about who killed Nurse Epiphany's son?"

"We'll look for Stan's killer, too, but this guy Moreau could be a threat to the organization. If he can't get Johnny to do what he wants he might come after Sonny and he'll use Carly or the kids to get to him."

"Or Jake and Elizabeth to get to you," Spinelli thought, but didn't say.

He was beginning to realize now why Jason was so insistent on going along with Lucky's wish to stay Jake's father. He didn't agree that Jason should never see his son, but Spinelli had no say in that. The more he thought of his own baby, though, and what had happened to Lulu today, the more Jason's words from a few weeks ago resounded in his head.

"I chose this life. You don't have to choose this life, Spinelli. Think about other options while you can because the longer you stay in, the harder it is to get out."

"I'll keep looking. Not only is it an intriguing challenge, but I don't want him endangering Lulu again. There's been more than enough violence and fear in this city over the past few months; we need to stop it."

At his penthouse, Jason smiled at the determination in Spinelli's voice. He wished everyone else could see in the kid what only Jason, Lulu and Georgie really saw.

After hanging up again with Jason, Spinelli stared at his laptop screen, trying to focus on finding Moreau. But his thoughts kept returning to the conversation he had had with Jason when he had told him they were going to keep pretending Lucky was Jake's father.

"Think about other options while you can."

But he felt disloyal doing that. But then if he didn't, wasn't he being disloyal to his child? His baby couldn't protect itself; he needed to be the protector. As he had thought before, someone might kidnap Spinelli to get Jason to do something they wanted. What would happen to his baby if something happened to him. Nadine would be there, but his child would be an orphan. Jolene was never expected to wake up. Spinelli was the only parent this child would have.

He came out of his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You OK?" Lulu asked, looking concerned.

"Yeah, I just have a few things to consider before the baby comes. I-"

He looked guilty and anxious.

"I think I need to think about leaving the organization."

She didn't look surprised.

"You're thinking about what would happen to your baby if something happened to you."

"How did you know?"

"I'd be thinking the same thing if I was about to become a parent."

She looked pensive then and he knew she was thinking about her abortion.

"But where else would The Jackal be accepted and valued as a person as I am working with Stone Cold?"

"Why work for anyone? Why not be your own boss?"

"Doing what?"

She smiled. He didn't know his own good qualities.

"Spinelli, you're a genius. You can be anything; a computer programmer, a tech support guy, a Private Investigator maybe."

"Private Investigator," he said thoughtfully.

"How much information have you found for Jason in the past year that no one else has been able to find? You helped me figure out who really killed Rick Webber; you helped me prove my mom's innocence. You found me when I stupidly hitchhiked out of Port Charles to get away from The Unworthy One. Everything you said about him was way understated; you were more right than we'll ever know."

Spinelli pushed his own thoughts to the back of his mind and studied her face more closely.

"Are you OK? Can't you sleep?"

She shook her head. He put his laptop on the coffee table and gestured for her to sit on the couch next to him.

"I let him turn me into someone I don't like," she said softly. "I allowed him to control me just by wanting to believe he wasn't who everyone thought he was. I let him convince me that he was a rebel with a heart of gold. Carly was right; I should have listened to her. I should have listened to you."

"It's over," he said, putting his arm around her.

"How can you still be my friend? How can you love me after I treated you so badly because of him and Johnny? And then Logan was really gonna hurt you tonight. If you and Jason hadn't stopped him-"

"But we did stop him and we're all OK."

"And Johnny didn't even come for me when I was kidnapped. Moreau took me to get to him and he didn't even care. He's another one I convinced myself wasn't as bad as everyone said."

She paused and looked into his eyes.

"You're the only guy who's ever been true to me and I've been so mean to you. I honestly meant it when I said you were my best friend, Spinelli, but my actions-"

"None of that matters now."

He kept his voice firm but gentle.

"But it does."

"Listen to me. The Simian One made you see what he wanted you to see, what you wanted to see. Maxie showed him how to push your buttons and he used his talks and experiences with you to expand on that knowledge. He pushed further and harder until he had you so confused about who you were and what you wanted that he could do anything except what he did tonight. Once he did that you fought him with everything you had. You refused to be his victim once he got physically violent with you. Many women would have accepted his apology and gone right back to him; you found the courage not to do that. I'm proud of you."

"None of what I did to you is OK, Spinelli. I was so wrapped up in myself and him that I treated you like dirt just for trying to be the true friend you are and trying to protect me. You knew he was dangerous; I knew he was dangerous. The difference is I didn't care because I had to prove I was right and everyone else was wrong. It didn't matter what anybody else thought; I was gonna be with Logan just to spite everyone, especially my dad because Logan's the son of his worst enemy. How could I do that?"

"You're human; you're not perfect. You made a mistake."

'More than one; I took him back after-"

"Lulu, you need to stop this right now."

He tried to adopt Stone Cold's stern tone when Spinelli had blamed himself for Lulu's decision to hitch a ride with Johnny Zacchara.

"Logan made choices, too; they weren't all yours. He made that bet with Maxie. He hit you tonight and tried to hurt me because I dared to try to help you. Those were his decisions and you couldn't have predicted or prevented them."

"what about my own choices? What about the ones I could have prevented? They were my choices, so we know I could predict them and if I could predict them I could prevent them because I was the one in charge."

"OK, so make a prediction for me," he said, trying to lighten the mood, but also trying to get her to be honest with him, and with herself. He smiled. "We know you're through with Logan. What are you gonna do about Johnny?"

"I'm through with all bad boys," she said without hesitation. "I don't ever wanna go through another day like today again."

"See? You learn from your mistakes and you know not to make the same ones again."

She smiled at him as she pulled him into a tight hug. He always knew how to make her feel better.


	8. Chapter 8

The next day was very eventful for Spinelli and Georgie, but not all of it was good. In fact, it started bad for both of them, then got better for both of them, then got worse for Georgie. Her strength would be tested again and Spinelli would again be there, giving her the added strength she needed to deal with what the universe was throwing at her.

Lulu had the morning shift at Kelly's and Spinelli was hungry, so he went with her. He was also hoping to see Georgie there.

She was there; she had been waiting for him, wanting to share breakfast. Lulu smiled at them both as she went to clock in, glad that her friend had finally found the happiness he deserved in the woman Lulu herself had hurt by breaking up her marriage. She thought Spinelli's Gods and Goddesses must have had a hand in those two getting together.

But she was suddenly completely caught off guard by a pang of jealousy. She pushed it away quickly, not understanding where it had come from. Why would she be jealous? Spinelli was her friend and she had no romantic claims on him. She didn't want to be possessive of him the way Carly was over every single guy in her life. She wanted Spinelli to be happy; he deserved it, especially after Lulu and Jolene had hurt him so badly. Forcing the jealousy aside, Lulu decided it had never really been there in the first place. She was just reacting to what had happened with Logan the day before. Spinelli and Georgie had each other and she was single again; that was why she was jealous. Wasn't it?

Spinelli had just finished telling Georgie about Lucky arresting Logan when he felt a strong hand come down on his shoulder and grip hard. He looked up in surprise, wondering what Logan was doing out of jail already.

It wasn't Logan; it was the Elder Unworthy, Scott Baldwin. He looked murderous and wreaked of liquor; he was clearly very inebriated.

"You broke my son's nose and landed him in jail!"

"Your son landed himself in jail," Georgie said angrily.

"I didn't mean to break his nose; I was very angry and I was just trying to make him let go of me."

"What? Are you gonna tell me you're sorry?"

"No, that would be a lie, but I honestly didn't mean to hurt him that badly."

"At least Spinelli was defending himself, and me," Lulu said, coming to their table. "Logan hit me just because we were having an argument. Spinelli is not a violent person by nature and you know that. Logan has a history of beating people up. I was an idiot to ever get involved with him in the first place and you can bet that District Attorney's job you want so badly that I'm never gonna make that mistake again."

"You're all gonna pay for this," Scott said, glaring at the three of them. "First of all, Lulu, that report you filed last night? I'm gonna make it disappear. Next I'm gonna have your lapdog here arrested for what he did to my son."

He released Spinelli with a shove, but was careful not to make him fall off his chair. He was a creep, but he wasn't stupid enough to compromise himself by hurting Spinelli; that was a sure way to lose any case he could bring against him.

"Don't ever call him that!" Lulu and Georgie said together, both furious.

"Logan told me what you did, too, Georgie, and don't think you're gonna get off the hook for slapping my son and beating him up. Spinelli here, as well is Mike, is a witness."

"I was a witness, all right," Mike said, coming out from behind the counter. "Your son assaulted Spinelli first yesterday and Georgie defended her boyfriend. She's been through enough without having to deal with you and your son. Logan's done enough to hurt Spinelli, Lulu and everyone else he comes in contact with, so just get outa here and don't come back unless it's to order something to eat. You're not harassing my customers, Baldwin, or I'm gonna have you thrown in jail right along with your good-for-nothing son. I'm also gonna tell the cops that you threatened these three kids."

"You won't have to," Georgie said. "I'm calling my dad right now and warning him that Scott said he was gonna make Lulu's abuse report disappear. That way he can make sure he takes extra care to keep an eye on it. I'll also tell him to expect Scott to hound him about arresting Spinelli for being a good friend. What a horrible crime! I'm sure my dad will arrest him right away, won't he, Scott?"

She gave Scott a smile that could freeze the sun. Spinelli had never expected to see such a cold look on Georgie's face, but he much preferred it to the melt down she'd had the day before with Logan. He was also grateful; he had never expected anyone to defend him like this. No one, before her, Lulu and Stone Cold, had ever stood up for him so strongly before.

Scott made to grab Georgie's phone as she flipped it open, but Spinelli jumped to his feet and stood between them.

"Get out, Baldwin," Mike said in a dangerous voice, "before I have my son and his enforcer make you disappear like you threatened to do to that official report Lulu filed at the police station."

Scott stared at Spinelli for a minute before leaving. There was something different about the kid, but Scott couldn't put his finger on it. When had Spinelli become so confident? When had he started showing a backbone?

If Scott had known everything Spinelli had done for others, or even cared, he wouldn't have had to wonder. Spinelli had always had a backbone, but now he was using it to defend himself, not just the people he cared about. At some point over the past few weeks, he had come to realize that if he was going to protect his baby, he first needed to learn to stand up for himself. He knew he couldn't hide behind Stone Cold forever. Learning that he would be a father soon had given him the motivation he needed to take full control of his own life.

Scott wasn't finished, though. He went to Mayor Floyd, who immediately issued warrants to arrest Spinelli and Georgie. They had just gotten up to leave Kelly's when a cop none of them had ever seen before walked in, followed by Scott.

"This is Officer Darrin Savage. He's come to arrest you two for the assault on my son.

"Wait a minute," Lulu said. "Spinelli was defending me and Georgie was defending him."

"That's your story," Scott said.

"Look," Lulu said to the cop, "I don't know what he told you, but his son hit me last night and I filed a report against him. If you call my brother, Lucky Spencer, he can tell you; he's the one who arrested Logan."

"Commissioner Scorpio himself took her statement," Spinelli said.

"The Commissioner is also my father," Georgie said.

The cop looked at Scott for confirmation.

"Yeah, that's all true, but that doesn't change the facts. They beat up my son. Logan has a broken nose now because of what this guy did to him."

"What's going on here?" Mike asked.

Lulu had gone into the office to get him.

"The Elder Unworthy is having us arrested," Spinelli said.

He was suddenly struck by his own reaction. A few weeks ago he would have panicked at the thought of being arrested, even if the grounds were unfounded. In this case he supposed they were not, but it was clearly self-defense and no judge would convict him or Georgie, unless the judge was in Baldwin's pocket. Well, maybe the judge could convict Georgie, but maybe he wouldn't if he knew all the pain she'd been experiencing over her sister's death. Georgie had had a horrific few weeks that would have made anyone crack.

Spinelli was much calmer now than he would have been before. He was curious; he'd have to ponder this later and find out what had changed.

"I thought I told you to leave," Mike yelled at Baldwin.

"I'm not going anywhere until I get justice for my son."

"You don't want justice," Spinelli said. "You want revenge."

His mind flashed back to Nadine's question the day before.

"When does justice become revenge?"

Spinelli had told her he guessed it depended on the person and the circumstances. In this case, the person had everything to do with it. Baldwin was a mean, vindictive person and the circumstances didn't matter.

"Call the Commissioner," Georgie said calmly to the cop. "He'll corroborate everything we've told you."

"The Commissioner will protect his daughter," Scott said quickly.

Savage, a tall cop with immaculate black hair and black eyes, looked all of them over carefully. He was not far out of rookie status, which was why Scott had picked him to make this arrest. He didn't think Savage would question a superior.

Spinelli and Georgie exchanged glances. Both had noted the warmth and friendliness in the cop's eyes.

"I can make or break your career, Son," Scott said.

That seemed to make up Savage's mind for him.

"I'll be right back; I'm gonna call the Commissioner. He can also make or break my career."

Scott glared at him, but didn't try to stop him. He knew better than to make himself look the way everyone was trying to paint him.

After a few minutes, Savage came back and glared at Baldwin.

"Commissioner Scorpio corroborates their story, Sir. I know why you picked me to make this arrest, too; I'm not far from being a rookie; I just joined a few months ago. But I was on the New York City Police Force for a year before that. I'm not as close to rookie status as you thought; your mistake was not checking my record. You're slipping, Sir, probably because of all the boos you've been drinking. You thought you could scare me into following your orders. I don't scare easily. Mr. Spinelli, Ms. Jones, on behalf of the PCPD, I extend my apologies."

"No apologies necessary," Spinelli said.

Georgie nodded.

"You were just following the orders of a crooked prosecutor," she said, glaring at Baldwin.

"Don't' expect to be on the force for long," Scott snarled at Savage.

"I already told you, Mr. Baldwin, I don't scare easily. In fact, the Commissioner told me about a call his daughter made not long ago telling him how you threatened to conveniently misplace a certain report that doesn't put your son in a very good light; in fact, your son's in quite a bit of trouble. He seems to have caused a lot of trouble for these three, too."

He indicated Spinelli, Georgie and Lulu.

"My son didn't do anything to Georgie."

"He hurt my sister," Georgie said angrily.

"Do you suspect Mr. Hayes of killing her?" Savage asked gently.

"No, it had to do with a bet he made with her; he used her to get what he wanted and then-"

"He cheated on me with Georgie's sister a few months ago," Lulu said, giving Georgie a sympathetic look.

She could see that thinking of Maxie was upsetting her. Spinelli put his arm around Georgie and she moved closer to him.

"You have my condolences concerning your sister," Savage said quietly.

Then he took out his handcuffs.

"Mr. Baldwin, you offered to further my career if I helped you do this. I agreed because I saw your son's nose and his medical reports; I honestly believed that Mr. Spinelli was at fault. But looking at him now, and looking at your son last night in the jail cell, I began to get suspicious. Physically, unless Mr. Spinelli has some Marshall Arts training I don't know about, your son would clearly win in a knock down drag out fight. I listened carefully to these three people and I observed your interaction with Mr. Corbin. You've committed a few crimes. You tried to bribe me. You tried to falsify your official report."

He took out a paper and showed it to Scott.

"You reported Mr. Spinelli and Ms. Jones for assault when they were clearly defending themselves."

"Georgie slapped my son just because-"

"He assaulted Mr. Spinelli and Ms. Jones reacted. How do we know your son wouldn't have hurt her? He hit Ms. Spencer; no one is disputing that fact, not even you."

"Logan made a mistake."

"So did you when you tried to bribe me and railroad these people. You, Sir, are under arrest."

Everyone grinned as Scott was cuffed and dragged, still protesting loudly, out of Kelly's.


	9. Chapter 9

The rest of the day was uneventful, in terms of crisis and drama, until around the Kelly's dinner rush that night. Georgie went with Spinelli to buy a car. Cabs could get expensive and he couldn't ask his friends to drive him everywhere, especially once the baby came. He bought an SUV, knowing that would provide plenty of room for the baby's things. He also signed up for self-defense and parenting classes. He had been planning for weeks to take the parenting classes, but last night's events, and the fact that he had thought he was going to have to defend Georgie against Scott that morning, prompted him to take the self-defense classes, too.

"What do you think about The Jackal becoming a private Investigator?" he asked Georgie, driving back to his apartment in his new car.

From the passenger's seat, she looked at him in surprise. That question had come out of the blue.

"I think it's a great idea; you'd make a great PI."

She saw him beam over at her and gave him what he'd become to think of as his look, the smile she gave only him.

He had a wireless connection at his apartment and Georgie had said she needed to register for her classes. Understandably, she was worried about her grades for last semester, too, which would be in today. Maxie's death had made it impossible for her to concentrate at the end of the semester. She had been in a fog, and sometimes still was, and she worried that she would have to take some classes over again.

While Georgie tended to her college business on her laptop, Spinelli used his to sign up for an online PI course. He also received a few alerts having to do with some projects for Stone Cold, including some information on Moreau and the police report on Stan's death. It was definitely being ruled as a homicide. Epiphany would be receiving his personal effects soon.

The information on Moreau didn't sit right with Spinelli; it seemed off. He was learning to trust his instincts, so he filed away his reservations to bring up with Stone Cold later. He couldn't put his finger on why it felt wrong; he supposed it was because it was too detailed, the background too perfect, to be anything but a fake.

"I passed," Georgie said, sounding surprised. "I passed everything."

He smiled at her.

"That surprises you? I mean, it would have been understandable if you hadn't."

"I know; I just hate repeating classes. I had to do it once when I was little and I felt like I was failing my parents. They never said I did, of course, and they probably didn't even think it, but I felt awful. It wasn't even because I didn't know the material either; I just didn't like the class. Actually, it was the teacher I didn't like. My parents just looked so disappointed when they saw that F on my report card."

"Parental figures have looking disappointed down to an art form," he said, thinking of the times his Granny had given him the same look, the last time being when she thought he'd gotten Lulu pregnant and then fled back to Oakfield to avoid his responsibilities.

They spent a few more hours together before Georgie had to take her shift at Kelly's. After she left, Spinelli called Jason and gave him Moreau's background and explained his gut feeling that Moreau was not real, that he was definitely an alias. Jason agreed and they met up at Casa De Stone Cold to look over the info and try to figure out who Moreau really was.

Coop was panicking. He knew his DNA was in this report; it was the autopsy report, the one that would show his skin under Maxie's fingernails. Sometimes he felt guilty about killing her; he really had loved her, but when she had slept with Logan, the guy who was supposed to be his best friend, he had lost it. The thought of it still made him see red; it was that thought that made him glad he'd killed her. It did make him feel bad to see Georgie and Mack suffering because of her death, though. They didn't deserve to suffer for Maxie's actions.

But he couldn't go to jail, not for Maxie and Logan. He couldn't work for Sonny from a jail cell. He couldn't search for his mother either. All he knew was her name, Brenda Barrett. He had thought a few times of asking Spinelli to help him search; the kid really knew his way around Cyberspace. But he was afraid Spinelli would feel obligated to tell Jason who Coop was looking for and Cooper didn't want that until he caught up with her and got some answers, the number one question being why she'd left him with his father's cousin and never come back.

"Is that Maxie's autopsy report?" Mack asked from behind him.

"Yes, Sir," Cooper said, hoping he didn't look as anxious as he felt.

Mack took the report from him and went into the office. Coop's shift was over, so he left the station and headed back to Kelly's, still trying to figure out what to do.

No one in Port Charles knew that Cooper was depressed, or that he'd been off his meds since he'd found out Logan had slept with Maxie. That might not have been enough to make him stop taking his meds, but a few days later he'd found out his mother had been in Port Charles briefly and had never bothered to contact him. Apparently she'd been brought into the hospital for food poisoning, but had been the patient caught in the exploding ambulance, the one Jason had saved. She hadn't wanted anyone to know she was in town; Cooper's more questionable contacts had been spying on the hospital for months for their own reasons, some of them having to do with MedCam, and had informed him after she'd left. Cooper had been enraged that his incompetent sources hadn't found out who she was until after she'd left.

Now, in the grip of panic and terror, off his meds for months, Cooper took the only option he felt was opened to him. He had strangled Maxie; it seemed only fitting that he die the same way. He carefully made a noose in the rafters of his room and stood on a chair. It would all be over soon.

Everyone who worked at Kelly's knew Coop's routine. When he didn't come down for dinner, Mike went up to go check on him. He came downstairs almost immediately, looking as white as a sheet.

"Mike, what's wrong?" Georgie asked.

"Coop's dead," he said flatly, picking up the phone to call the police.

Georgie stared at him in disbelief as she listened to what Mike told the dispatcher. Coop had committed suicide? He had hung himself? Why would he do that?

The police answered all those questions with one statement. Cooper's suicide note was a confession to killing Maxie and to being one of the gunmen in the hostage crisis, but a denial of killing the other Text Message Killer victims. He said he would confess to killing Maxie because he had, but that he didn't want to die with people thinking he'd done something he hadn't. He had been looking for clues, though, and had put them in a safe deposit box. He left the key in the envelope with his suicide note.

"Honey, why don't you go home?" Mike asked gently. "I'll call Lulu and ask her to take the rest of your shift."

Georgie agreed, but didn't go directly home. There were two other places she needed to go first.

Mike gave Georgie enough time to get home, then called her house to make sure she got home safely. She had been through so much lately and he worried about her driving. He had tried to convince her to let him, or someone else, drive her, but she had insisted on taking her own car. Felicia said Georgie hadn't been home since that morning. Beginning to worry, she called Mack, who called Spinelli.

"You knew, didn't you?" Georgie asked, standing beside Maxie's grave. "You knew he was in the hostage crisis; you knew he was one of the people who held you and everyone in that lobby. How could you bring someone like that into our lives, Maxie?"

She began to cry. She was angry and she missed her sister. She also felt cheated because Cooper wouldn't pay for what he did to Maxie.

Spinelli stared at his laptop after hanging up with Mack. He hadn't seen Georgie since she'd left for her shift at Kelly's that afternoon. Mack had given him all the details of Cooper's suicide. They were both relieved that Georgie hadn't been the one to find him. On top of finding Maxie's body and not being able to save her, that would have been too much. But where could she be? Spinelli hacked into the security cameras around Kelly's and knew instinctively, when he saw the direction Georgie's car headed in, where she'd gone. He picked up his cell phone and called hers, but it went straight to the voicemail; she had turned her phone off. He left a message, then waited expectantly, trying not to worry about what could happen to her out there alone with the Text Message Killer still on the loose. Also, she was upset. He didn't like her driving when she was upset; it was too easy to get into an accident that way.

Georgie wiped her eyes as she started her car. Then she remembered that her phone was turned off and that Mike thought she was going home. She knew he cared about her and might have called to see if she got home safely. He did things like that; he was a good boss and a good person.

There was a message from Mike, one from Felicia and one from Mack. The last one was from Spinelli.

"Georgie, your father just called me looking for you. He told me what happened."

His voice was anxious and he was stammering a little, the way he always did when he was upset or worried.

"Can you please call me, or better yet come over? I- I'm worried about you."

That last part sounded like a confession. She smiled, wiping her eyes again. She had needed to see him, anyway; she needed to have him hold her and put things into perspective. She needed him to help her get rid of this anger towards her dead sister.

Spinelli's living room window looked out on the parking lot. He was glad for that because he could see Georgie's car if she pulled in. When he finally saw it, he jumped up and opened the door. He lived on the second floor, so it didn't take long before she was there.

"I'm sorry," she said, hugging him tightly. "I didn't mean to worry you and Mack."

"It's OK, he said, again moving towards the couch with her. They seemed to have a lot of their conversations on the couch, especially when she was upset. "I'm just relieved to see you."

"I went to Maxie's grave," she said softly.

"I thought so," he said gently, not wanting her to know he'd hacked into the security cameras to find out where she might have gone.

He wouldn't have done it under normal circumstances, but he and Mack had both been worried and for his own peace of mind, he had to know. But she was upset and he didn't want her to think he'd been spying on her. He knew being her boyfriend didn't give him the right to do that and he never would.

"I thought it would help," she said, and he could tell by the sound of her voice that she was crying again. Her head was buried in his chest. "It only made it worse."

She lifted her head to look up at him.

"I'm so angry with both of them!"

He looked confused.

'Cooper and-"

"Cooper and Maxie! She had to know he was involved in the hostage crisis and she got involved with him, anyway, and then she made that stupid bet with Logan! Coop escaped justice; I can't have justice for my sister because he decided to take the coward's way out!"

He pulled her closer, pulling her head to his shoulder.

"I don't wanna be angry with Maxie!" she sobbed.

"I know," he said quietly.

"I called Mack on the way over here. He said Coop had a prescription for depression. He'd been off his meds for months."

"Do you think Maxie knew any of that?"

"I don't know," she said tiredly. "All I know is the prescription was filled just before he and everyone else found out about her sleeping with Logan. Spinelli, what if she caused him to go off his medication? What if all this could have been avoided if-"

"What if questions will drive you crazy. We can't know any of this. If you need to understand Coop's condition better I can hack into his medical records for you, but no one can tell what he would or would not have done if Maxie had done things differently. I think it's better for you if you don't speculate."

"Yeah," she sighed, "I think maybe you're right."

They were silent for a few seconds.

"I don't know how I expected this to end," she said, "but Coop committing suicide? Him being on depression meds? I never expected this."

"I don't think anything ever happens the way we expect. I mean, I never expected any of what's happened to me since I came to Port Charles, from Evil Al to breaking the Knuckle Scraper's nose."

"Would you change any of it?" she asked, looking up at him again.

"No," he said. "It was those events that led me to you and the first real friendships I've ever had. I wouldn't trade my relationships with you, Stone Cold or the Blonde One for anything. I'm gonna have a baby soon; I never thought I'd be having children. I fantasized about it, but never thought it would happen. I never thought you or any other girl would choose me; I was just not someone anyone would choose, or at least that's what I thought. I know I'm rambling; my point is that something good has to come from this. Maybe Cooper's clues will lead us to the real Text Message Killer. Maybe we can stop him before he has the chance to kill again."

She gave him a tired smile.

"I like when you ramble; I find it soothing. You take me out of my own head for a while. You make me see things differently. I thought on the way over here that I needed you to get rid of my anger towards Maxie, but that wasn't what I needed. What I needed was what you just gave me, the opportunity to talk it out and then the distraction I needed to calm down."

He smiled.

"You and Stone cold have both taught me that it's always good to have a different perspective. Sometimes I get so focused on one thing that I exclude all others, like when I was trying to get Lulu to notice me. If I hadn't been so fixated on her, and then on Jolene, I might have noticed your feelings sooner. But then if I hadn't been trying to pursue Jolene I wouldn't be expecting this baby. I didn't plan on becoming a single father, but I wouldn't change it either. The conditions may not be ideal, but my innocent One is already one of my greatest blessings."

They talked for a long time. By the time Georgie left, she was smiling and he'd made her laugh a few times. She didn't feel so alone now. She still had Mack, Robin, Felicia and Spinelli. By the time she got home, she realized her anger with Maxie was not nearly as intense as it had been. Spinelli had listened intently, but had not tried to make her change her thinking; he knew that hadn't been what she needed before she had known. Most people considered his rambling thoughts and unique vocabulary annoying. Georgie considered it the best medicine she could have asked for tonight. They understood each other. He was the only one who could have given her the release she needed and still manage to validate her feelings without trying, intentionally or unintentionally, to force her to change them.


	10. Chapter 10

The next week was busy, but thankfully not dramatic. Spinelli took his first parenting class, where he and some of the other parents started talking about names during their break. Some of the parents were there to learn how to become better parents; Spinelli and a few others were first-time parents and wanted to learn what they could before their babies came. Some of his classmates gave him strange looks when he told them about the baby's mother being in a coma, which was why she wasn't with him, but they had asked. Once he explained that she'd been shot and they hadn't found out she was pregnant until after the shooting, everyone commended him for taking responsibility for the child. He accepted their praise, but secretly wondered what was so admirable about accepting responsibility for something you were, in fact, responsible for. The baby was his son or daughter; of course he would take responsibility for it, regardless of the mother's situation. If Jolene had been awake, they would be planning for and raising the baby together.

He had originally planned to wait to find out the sex of the baby before picking out names, but after talking to some of the parents, he decided to look up the meanings of names he liked. He flatly refused to name his son Damien Junior because of the reputation the name had; it meant sweet and harmless, but there was also speculation that Damien was the son of the devil, or that it meant a bad omen. He hated his first and middle names, which was why most people just used his last. The only person who ever called him Damien now was his Granny.

By the end of that night, he had a list of names, male, female and unisex. It was not a short list, but he would be able to narrow it down considerably once he knew the baby's sex.

He was fairly pleased with himself by the end of his first self-defense class, but some of the experiences he'd had over the past year had taught him not to get cocky. Not only was it a Crabby Commando thing to do, but it could also get him and others into trouble. He had been so sure he could handle a gun and he'd ended up shooting himself in the foot, which had led Jason to take the blame and end up doing community service at the hospital. That had led Spinelli to Jolene and an unplanned pregnancy, not to mention a shootout that had left his child's mother in a coma, probably for the rest of her life. He knew the shootout had had nothing to do with him, that it would have happened whether or not he'd been there, but Jolene had taken the bullet that had been meant for him. If he hadn't shot himself three months before, he wouldn't have been there for her to save then. But if he hadn't shot himself then, he wouldn't be expecting his child now and he wouldn't have been motivated to make all these drastic, but positive, not to mention necessary, changes. With each passing day, he became more convinced that this child had been what he'd needed all along. He knew with every instinct that his entire life, especially his time in Port Charles, had been leading up to the moment when he would hold his child. That was when his life would really begin.

In Cyberspace, he was still trying to find Moreau's true identity, as well as any impromptu information Stone cold might need. He was also taking his online PI course, Get Your Man. The course actually began to help him with his research for Stone Cold because he could apply it to his Cyber Sleuthing skills. By the end of the year, he hoped to be officially open for business as Jackal PI.

"Do you think it's a boy or a girl?" Nadine asked on the way to Kelly's office.

"I have refrained from speculation; my child is what he or she is and will be loved as a unique individual."

They smiled at each other as Kelly called them in.

Jolene was on a table, all the machines still attached to her, including the fetal monitor. Spinelli smiled again as he looked at the waves and listened to the beeps representing his baby's heartbeat.

"We've done several ultrasounds, but we're gonna do another one today, Spinelli, for a very specific reason."

He looked up at Dr. Kelly, alarmed until he saw the smile on her face. Nadine winked at him. He gave them both a confused look.

"How would you like to hear my niece or nephew's heartbeat?" Nadine asked.

Spinelli nodded, beaming.

Kelly did the sonogram first and handed Spinelli the picture, responding to his nod when she asked him if he wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl. She showed him all the appropriate places and he stared in amazement.

Kelly handed the picture that would normally be given to the mother over to Nadine, who looked for a minute, then smiled over at the proud father to be. He couldn't seem to take his eyes off the picture.

Kelly hooked up the ultrasound and let Spinelli hear the heartbeat. He watched the fetal monitor, still keeping one eye on the picture, as the monitor beeped and the lines moved in time with the happy swishing noise coming from the ultrasound. This was really his child; his baby was moving and growing and he would actually be able to hold the tiny person in this picture in six months. Those six months couldn't possibly pass fast enough.

He suddenly wished Georgie could have been there, but she was beginning classes today. He was glad to have Nadine there; she was the baby's aunt, but he couldn't wait to share this picture with his girlfriend. He grinned at the picture, suddenly wanting to share it with everyone he knew, even those who didn't like him. Realizing that one of those people would have had to be Logan, he reduced the number to Georgie, Mike, Lulu and Jason.

Grinning, Nadine put an arm around Spinelli and walked him out of Kelly's office. They both thanked her as they left, Spinelli still not taking his eyes off the picture. He was lost in his own thoughts; images of walking to school on the baby's first day, kissing injuries to make them better, reading bedtime stories and having someone to share mutual, unconditional love for the first time in his life. All the names but one left his head; there was no longer a list. There was only one name for this child, one that meant "magical."

"Are you OK?" Nadine asked, sounding concerned as they reached the nurse's station. "You haven't said a word since we left Dr. Lee's office."

He looked up at her, surprised to realize they had gone from Kelly's office to the nurse's station already. He'd been so deep in thought that he didn't remember walking through the halls; he barely remembered leaving the office. She laughed at the mixture of surprise and pure joy on his face. She had never seen him look so happy.

"Her name is Kendra," he told her softly.


	11. Chapter 11

"You still haven't told your Granny about the baby?" Georgie asked, surprised.

"She doesn't even know I shot myself last summer."

She couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"I know I need to tell her; I just need to get up the nerve."

She smiled.

"I can understand that; it's hard to tell parental figures something you don't think they'll approve of, but she might surprise you. Everyone here respects you for taking responsibility for your child; I'm sure she will, too."

"How many times has she lectured me on no sex before marriage? She's gonna kill me!"

"Grandparents always say that, but they have to know that not everyone is gonna listen."

"Maybe I should just wait until Kendra's born and go to Oakfield for a visit and surprise her."

She gave him a look that was half amused and half scolding.

"You're right," he sighed. "She's gotta know."

He decided to call her now, knowing that if he put it off any longer he really would end up waiting until Kendra was born. He knew he should have told her sooner, but had kept promising himself he would do it the next day; he was too busy that day. Georgie put an arm around him to offer moral support.

"Hi, Granny. I need to tell you something."

"Are you in trouble?" she demanded.

"No, I'm fine. I'm-"

He looked at Georgie and took a deep breath.

"Well, there's a lot going on lately. I have a girlfriend. I'm also gonna have a baby."

Then he realized how that sounded and gave Georgie an apologetic look. She smiled back.

"But the baby is not my girlfriend's."

Then he realized how that made him sound and his stomach dropped.

"Relax," Georgie mouthed. "Just explain the situation."

"Damien Spinelli, what in the world have you gotten yourself into this time!" Granny demanded.

Georgie could hear her yelling at him and understood fully now why he'd been putting it off. Spinelli's Granny seemed to be a formidable woman.

"Granny, please, just let me explain."

"You'd better explain!"

"I had an accident last summer and had to go to the ER. I kind of developed a crush on my nurse and started seeing her on Saturdays. But there was a shootout between two gangs one night at the hospital and she jumped in front of me; she took the bullet that was meant for me and then we found out she was pregnant. She's in a coma; the doctors don't expect her to wake up. I'm gonna raise my child, Granny; I just found out I'm having a daughter."

"You said the baby isn't your girlfriend's?"

"No, Georgie's my girlfriend; I've told you about her."

"You said she was your friend."

"Yeah, a lot has changed over the past few weeks."

"How does she feel about you having a baby?"

"She's known about that since before we became a couple; she's been great."

"You think it's fair saddling her with a kid that isn't hers?"

"I worried about that, too, but she respects me for wanting to raise my baby and taking responsibility for a kid I didn't plan to have, at least not yet."

"How do you plan to raise this kid all by yourself?"

He told her about his plans to become a PI and about his parenting and self-defense classes. Georgie rubbed his shoulders, wanting to do something to ease his tension while he waited for Granny's response.

"Well, it could be worse," she said finally. "You could have been one of those deadbeats that don't take care of their kids. You've grown up to be a good man."

"Much of that has to do with your influence," he said, smiling with relief.

A few minutes later, when he hung up, his relief was almost palpable.

"that went much better than I feared."

He laughed nervously.

As Spinelli was talking with his Granny, Scott and Logan were making plans. His hearing would be tomorrow; a judge would decide his punishment for hitting Lulu and Scott was scheduled for a hearing a few days later for his crimes. He was determined that neither of them would be spending anymore time in jail. He had plans and they would be carried out as soon as Logan's sentence was passed. There was no doubt that he would be found guilty; he had hit Lulu. There were pictures and an official report. There was no way Logan could get out of this by legal means.

But Mack had no idea how corrupt some of his officers were. Scott had managed to bribe a few of them and they were going to break Logan and Scott out tomorrow, just after the hearing. Scott's escape would be the distraction Logan needed to get out of the courtroom and they would meet up later.

Logan had his own plans, though, and Scott knew nothing about them. He had some scores to settle. There were some people he needed to take care of, then he would go off on his own, maybe back to Texas, maybe somewhere else. He didn't know, but there was no way Scott Baldwin would be joining him on his travels. Scott was one of the people who needed to be dealt with before Logan disappeared from Port Charles forever.

Lulu smiled when she checked her email. Spinelli had scanned the sonogram picture and sent it to her. "Her name is Kendra," the message said. "It means magical. It also means water baby, but I don't think that applies here."

Lulu had missed him. She was so angry with herself for allowing herself to allow Logan Hayes to come between them. Spinelli had always been a good friend to her and she treated him like dirt for most of the time she'd known him.

But she couldn't stop thinking about him. She wanted to see him, but she knew he was with Georgie and didn't want to interrupt them. She kept pushing him out of her mind, telling herself she was just lonely, having gone from having three guys interested in her to being completely single. She had told Spinelli a long time ago that she couldn't be with him, but he'd held out hope longer than Dillon or Milo. She had chosen Logan and Spinelli had kept hoping she would come to her senses. Then she had met Johnny after Logan had hurt her and then she'd been going back and forth between them, never giving Spinelli a second thought. He had moved on now and she was genuinely happy for him and Georgie. Spinelli was not hers; he never had been and never would be, and that was her own doing. He was with Georgie and she was alone. That was the only reason she kept thinking about him and wanting to see him. It had to be. She was not falling for Spinelli and she was not going to do anything to jeopardize his relationship with Georgie, not after everything she had done to both of them. She told herself that was the way it was and she would just have to accept it. She'd had her chance and blown it; end of discussion.

Unfortunately, she couldn't stop the voices from arguing in her head. One told her to fight for him, that she deserved him every bit as much as Georgie. Another told her to leave them alone, that Spinelli and Georgie were meant to be together. Another asked why she thought she deserved a good guy like Spinelli after all she'd put him through. By the time she went to bed that night, her thoughts were more confused than they had been when she was trying to choose between all the guys in her life and stagnating and leaving them hanging because she couldn't make up her mind. She was stagnating now, but at least this time she would be the only one getting hurt. There was no way she was going to complicate things for Spinelli by telling him how she felt. He had enough complications in his life already.


	12. Chapter 12

The next day, Spinelli and Lulu met at the courthouse for the hearing. Lucky was there, glaring at Spinelli the whole time, which made Spinelli nervous and Lulu annoyed. Lucky always acted as if Spinelli was some kind of monster because he was friends with Jason. It wasn't his fault that Jason had slept with Elizabeth; in fact, that had happened before Spinelli had come to Port Charles. If Lucky didn't stop, Lulu was going to cause a scene and she didn't want that. It would only hurt her case and even worse, to her, embarrass Spinelli.

"Don't worry, Lulu," Lucky said. "There's no way he can get off; there's too much evidence. We found some other stuff, too, that you're gonna find out about today."

"What?" Lulu asked.

"I can't tell you now; the judge is here."

"What do you think they found?" Spinelli asked.

Lulu shrugged, but didn't have the chance to answer.

"All rise," the bailiff said.

He went through his routine, then the prosecution, conducted by Rick Lancing, explained the charges against Logan. Scott, who would have normally defended Logan in this case because Logan was his son, wasn't able to because of his own legal troubles, so he had hired someone he knew in law school who had flown into Port Charles from Boston to conduct his defense. This crooked lawyer would also be defending Scott at his hearing.

Lulu was called to the stand first.

"Ms. Spenser," Rick said in a sympathetic tone, "will you please explain what happened on the day of January second?"

Lulu related her kidnapping, then the bomb scare at the hospital, then her fight with Logan, which had ended with his hitting her.

"Where did you go after you left Mr. Hayes's apartment?"

"I went to my best friend," she said, indicating Spinelli. "He went with me to file the police report."

"Did you see Logan Hayes after you filed the police report?"

"Yes, he showed up at Spinelli's looking for me. That was when Luck- Detective Spencer- came and arrested him."

Having no further questions, Rick turned the questioning over to the defense attorney, a short, bald man with ice blue eyes named Oliver Williams. This guy seemed to Spinelli to be an arrogant, self-important type who only cared about winning his cases. He spoke in the tones of those corny lawyers on TV who won their cases by forcing their witnesses into hysterics rather than using their questionably brilliant skills. In shows like those, the lawyer badgered some witness into hysterically making a confession after being presented with facts no one had heard before.

Spinelli always wondered how and why the lawyer, who was supposed to be the hero of the show, got all this information and the other side didn't have it. For one thing, in the older shows, there was no such thing as Cyberspace. For another, he knew that both sides needed all the facts; otherwise, there were legal ethics involved and there would at least be a continuance, if not a mistrial or some other penalization for the side who withheld the information.

He remembered having to sit through a few of these shows with his Granny when he lived in Tennessee. He avoided them now; they annoyed him with their attitude of "I always win my case." No lawyer could ever win every case; it was impossible.

The lawyer tried to destroy Lulu's credibility. He brought up some lies she had told Logan, as well as the fact that she'd been trying to choose between Spinelli, Milo and Dillon when she'd met Logan and decided to choose him. Spinelli felt his face heat with fury when he brought up her pregnancy and abortion. None of this had to do with what had happened on January second, as Rick finally pointed out. The judge ordered Williams to get to the point.

"Let's quickly review the facts, Ms. Spencer. You lie to your boyfriend, then tell him a far fetched story, however truthful, and expect him to believe it. The two of you have a heated argument and you say something in response to one of his remarks; he hits you. Running from him, you go to your best friend." He paused to make finger quotes around the phrase "best friend." "Damien Spinelli offers you shelter; having been one of your romantic interests, and possibly still in love with you, he's glad to help you and you accept."

"He's not still in love with me," Lulu said with more passion than Spinelli felt was necessary.

"Logan Hayes shows up, hoping to reason with you and Mr. Spinelli breaks his nose and gives him a black eye, just hours after Mr. Spinelli's girlfriend attacked Mr. Hayes and slapped him, much the same way he slapped you."

"If Spinelli's in love with me, why does he have a girlfriend?" Lulu asked huffily. "You can't have it both ways."

"Where are you going with this editorial summary, Mr. Williams?" the judge demanded. "No matter where you're going; get there and stop commenting on irrelevancies."

"I apologize, Your Honor. One more question, Ms. Spencer. You admit to having lied to Mr. Hayes before. You admit to playing Mr. Hayes, Mr. Spinelli and at least two other men against each other. Why should we believe your story now?"

"Because," Lulu said, trying not to give in to the impulse to call him an idiot, "it's all there in the police report, and not even your client is saying he didn't hit me!"

Spinelli was called next. To Williams's annoyance, he answered every question with no Jackalese, as Georgie had affectionately called his vocabulary once, and volunteered no information. He knew what people thought of him and would do nothing to cause Lulu to lose this case and Logan to go free.

Williams tried everything to hurt Spinelli's credibility, from asking about the nicknames to pointing out Spinelli's tendency to exaggerate when he was trying to make a point. Spinelli answered every question truthfully, but pointed out indisputable facts to back up what he was saying about Logan and Lulu. Williams's last question showed how desperate he was becoming as he realized his client had no chance of winning. But it was more than just an act of desperation; it was a signal for Scott to begin his escape. Scott had told Williams to ask this question, thinking Spinelli's answer would make him look insane, or at least a little out there. But Scott had also thought Spinelli would have already made himself look crazy with his nicknames and unusual vocabulary.

"Do you believe in space aliens, Mr. Spinelli?"

Spinelli had to fight to keep from laughing. The question was so ridiculous and had absolutely nothing to do with today's hearing.

"Mr. Williams," the judge said angrily.

"Your Honor, this young man is not credible and I intend to prove it!"

"I don't believe in space aliens in terms of the X-files or War of the Worlds, if that's what you mean," Spinelli said, as if this was a perfectly normal question and he'd been asked this every day of his life. "However, I do believe it would be the height of unforgivable arrogance for us to believe we are the only intelligent beings in the universe. Something must be out there, but I don't believe we'll ever see it in our lifetime; we're just not ready. Our minds are just not opened enough."

Spinelli honestly believed this, but the real reason he was saying it was to make Williams look as foolish as he sounded. He knew the lawyer was expecting him to start quoting old shows. "It's life, but not as we know it." "The truth is out there." "Where do they come from?" He was giving this arrogant little toad the exact opposite of what he wanted and enjoying himself in the process.

The judge suppressed a smile, knowing exactly what Spinelli was doing. The kid had a point, but he couldn't acknowledge it. Aliens had nothing to do with the case at hand and the defense attorney was obviously grasping at straws that did not exist.

"That will do, Mr. Spinelli. Mr. Williams, are you quite through with this witness? Are you through with spouting nonsense about space aliens?"

"Yes, Your Honor," Williams said, obviously defeated.

A police officer came running into the courtroom.

"Excuse me, Your Honor."

Spinelli and Lulu exchanged surprised looks. It was Darrin Savage, the cop who had arrested Scott last week. Savage was not one of the cops who was helping Scott escape, only the messenger who had come to inform the judge and the cops present so they could help in the search for Baldwin.

"I'm afraid we have a situation. Scott Baldwin has escaped custody."

Someone sounded an alarm and everyone jumped up. During the disturbance caused by people running everywhere to try to find Scott, Spinelli saw Logan grab Lulu and took off after them, which was exactly what Logan had wanted and expected. Spinelli's love for Lulu had brought him right into Logan's trap along with her. Now all that was left was to trap Georgie in the same way.


	13. Chapter 13

Lulu tried to scream when Logan grabbed her, but he covered her mouth. When he looked over his shoulder, she followed his eyes and saw Spinelli heading after them. She wanted to yell for him not to try to rescue her himself, to get help, but Logan's hand was still covering her mouth.

She bit him. Surprised, he released her, then hit her across the face with his bloody hand. She'd been stunned and couldn't speak; the blow had been a hard one, and even if she could have tried to scream, Spinelli wouldn't have heard her over the sounds of the crowd and the alarms. She smiled, though, glad she'd broken the skin and drawn blood.

Spinelli saw him hit her and ran faster to catch up. Logan was never going to hit Lulu again; he was going to see to it. But he needed help; he knew instinctively that he couldn't handle Logan alone. As Darrin Savage had pointed out last week, Logan had physical advantages. Spinelli could apply very little of his self-defense training, particularly because he'd only taken a week's worth of classes. But he would try his best to save Lulu from this cowardly fiend.

Logan faced forward again, confident that Spinelli would keep following them. Distracted by the pain in his hand, he didn't look back to see Spinelli using his cell phone.

"Stone Cold, Fair Lulu's in trouble. I'm following her, but I think I'm gonna need help. The Elder Unworthy has escaped police custody and the younger took advantage of the situation to abduct The Blonde One."

"Keep me on the line; I'll come once I find out where you're going. Where are you now?"

Spinelli felt himself becoming calmer. Stone Cold's voice was matter of fact, soothing, not showing a hint of alarm or fear.

"We're leaving the courthouse. The Knuckle Scraper just threw Fair Lulu in the back of his car; soon to be Jackal PI is in pursuit in his."

"OK, I'm on my way. Tell me which direction you head when you pull out of the parking lot; we'll go from there."

As Georgie left her last class, she received a text message. She looked at her phone apprehensively; she didn't trust text messages anymore. She would forever associate them with Maxie's murder.

Coop was dead and he'd been the one to kill Maxie, but the real killer, the one who had killed Emily and Leticia and attacked Carly, was still out there.

Reasoning that Spinelli would trace it if it was from someone she didn't know, she decided to check it, anyway. But when she read it, her blood went cold.

"Your BF needs you. Come to the cannery."

Spinelli wouldn't send her a text message; he knew she hated them now, and he would let her know it was from him if for some reason he absolutely had no other choice but to send her a text. This was from a number she didn't recognize. He would never call himself her BF either; he would call himself The Jackal. Besides, Georgie could sense something off; the tone of the message was not Spinelli and it gave her chills. Spinelli was in trouble. Whoever had sent her this message wanted to hurt him; she could feel it.

She ran to her car and drove to the cannery. She debated with herself whether or not to call Mack or Jason, but decided against it for now. She would assess the situation first and then call for help so she would be able to give as much information as she could. A text message and a gut feeling were not enough to go on.

At the cannery, Logan pulled lulu roughly out of the car. He hadn't bothered to blindfold her because the cannery was abandoned. No one but Spinelli, Lulu, Logan and Georgie would be here. Scott would meet them later, but by then Logan would have taken care of these three and would be free to kill him, too. Then he could escape to wherever he was going. He still hadn't figured that out yet, only that it would be far away from Port Charles.

Logan smiled at Lulu as he picked up the gun that had been left for him in the cannery. The metal detectors would have given him away if the corrupt police officer had given it to him before.

"Don't even think of trying to escape; you and Spinelli are gonna pay for all of this, and so is Georgie."

Lulu spat in his face. Logan hit her again, drawing fresh blood. He had split her lip when he'd hit her the first time, after she'd bitten him. Then he pointed the gun at her. Then he looked behind her.

"Come on in, Spinelli; I've been waiting for you."

Spinelli had thought he was being quiet. He felt his face go red; apparently he hadn't been quiet enough. He had told Stone Cold where they were before he'd gotten out of the car, but kept his phone on, continuing the call so Jason would know what was happening. The phone was safely in his pocket now, still broadcasting to Jason.

"I knew you'd come after her. You're so pathetic; you still think she's gonna choose you, don't you?"

"I'm with Georgie now," Spinelli responded angrily. "Unlike you, Simian One, The Jackal does not play with women. They're not possessions. I don't prostitute myself with one woman and then pretend to love another."

"Shut up! Get over there with Lulu and both of you keep your mouths shut. Stand against the wall. If one of you crosses me, I'll shoot the other. Georgie's coming, too, and then we can settle this."

He pointed with the gun to the wall he wanted them to stand against.

"Georgie wasn't even at the courthouse," Lulu said.

"I sent her a text message."

Spinelli and Lulu looked at each other, both having the same horrible thought.

"That's right. I'm the real Text Message Killer. Diego Alcazar hired me."

"Diego?" both of them asked.

Had Logan lost his mind? Diego had been dead for over a year.

"He survived, just barely, when Sam shot him. He wanted revenge on Sonny and Jason for killing his father, so he hired me to do it. The text messages were his idea, something about poetic justice because his father sent him a text message just before Jason killed him"

"He's planning to kill us, isn't he?" Lulu mouthed to Spinelli. "If he wasn't he wouldn't be telling us any of this."

Spinelli gave her an almost imperceptible nod.

"He's also been working with Jerry Jax," Logan continued. "Jerry's been giving me money and assignments. It's not him, of course; he's going by the name Moreau for this-"

"Moreau is the name of the guy who kidnapped me!" Lulu said, shocked and angry.

Logan blinked in surprise. He hadn't known that.

"Well, I'm sorry about that; I don't know anything about what Moreau does with Johnny. If I had I would have stopped him from kidnapping you."

"Yeah, right," Lulu said sarcastically. "This was the perfect excuse, Logan. I tell you some weird story that you don't believe, so you take the opportunity to hit me-"

"I didn't mean to hit you, but you made me do it when you-"

"Don't even try that!" Spinelli yelled furiously. "You do not get to blame her for your actions!"

Logan pointed the gun at him.

"Maybe I should shoot you before I shoot Lulu and Georgie; that way they can pay for what they did to me by watching you die in front of them."

Spinelli suddenly saw the shooting in his mind. The gun went off, he went down and Kendra was left fatherless. He couldn't risk abandoning his daughter; he had to be more careful. No matter how angry Logan made him, no matter how scared he was, he had to stay calm and not give Logan a reason to kill him, or anyone else. He only hoped and prayed he could keep him from killing Lulu and that Georgie wouldn't come, or that she would call for help before she came, or that Jason would come before she did. His very limited self-defense skills were no match against a Crabby Commando with a gun. He had to keep The Knuckle Scraper calm and talking until Stone Cold's arrival.

He looked apologetically at Lulu. He was terrified for all of them, especially Georgie because she had no idea what she was walking into. He prayed she would call Mack before coming here.

Logan turned the gun again so that it was trained on both of them. Spinelli quickly realized he wouldn't have to keep Logan talking; he wanted them to know everything because he was planning to kill them. He wanted them to know why they were going to die, and he also wanted them to know that he had no remorse and no conscience. He was a true serial killer, as Wise Georgie had described them after Maxie's death.

"I was originally hired to kill Leticia as a message to Sonny. Jerry was supposed to make the Zacchara's look even more suspicious by trying to negotiate with them to get them to leave Sonny's family alone; he could do that because of his relationship to Jax. I was supposed to kill her while she was out with the boys, but Maxie held me up. She was threatening to tell you about the bet we made so you'd break up with me. I had to scare her into backing off. So when I knew Carly wasn't home I went to her house and killed Leticia."

"Did it even occur to you that the boys might have been with her when she and Jason found Leticia?" Lulu demanded. "Do you even care what that would have done to them? Or what if Maxie hadn't held you up and you'd managed to get to your body guard shift in time? You might have killed one of the boys instead of her!"

"The sooner they learn what to expect in this business the better."

Spinelli and Lulu glanced at each other, then each gave Logan looks of hatred and disgust.

Georgie came running into the cannery.

"Spinelli!" she cried, running to him.

Spinelli wanted to yell for her to run, but knew it was too late. The Crabby Commando would shoot her before she got two steps out the door.

"Georgie," Logan said with fake cheerfulness, pointing the gun at her now, "glad you could join us. Get on lulu's other side. I'll shoot your boyfriend if you give me any trouble."

Jason wanted to break the speed limit, but knew getting arrested would not help Spinelli, Georgie and Lulu. Besides, as long as Logan was talking, he wasn't hurting them. He had a recording feature on his phone and had activated it when Logan had begun his arrogant confession. Like Spinelli and Lulu, Jason knew Logan was planning to kill them. He was only halfway there. He hoped Logan would keep talking until he could get to the cannery and take him out.

"Anyway," Logan continued once Georgie was in place and the gun was trained on her, as well as Spinelli and Lulu, "after I killed Leticia-"

Georgie looked startled.

"Yeah, you missed that part, didn't you? Good thing you showed up when you did; you might have missed the chance to kiss your boyfriend goodbye before he died."

She moved to put her arm around Spinelli, but Logan pointed the gun at him.

"You move, he dies."

Georgie stood with her hands at her sides, petrified. She couldn't lose Spinelli, too, not like this, and not so soon after Maxie. She cursed herself for not calling for help before entering the cannery. She'd been so intent on making sure Logan hadn't hurt Spinelli or Lulu that she'd run in before registering that he had a gun.

"Hey, Logan," someone called from outside the cannery, "are you here?"

"Come in, Dad. Join the party."

Lulu took advantage of the distraction. Logan was looking at Scott; Spinelli and Georgie were looking at each other. Lulu picked up a baseball-sized rock. As with all abandoned buildings, windows had been broken. This one must have been thrown at some point; it was lying beneath a broken window. A draft was coming in through the huge gap. If she could throw the rock just right, she could hit the gun out of Logan's hand.

Scott stopped in his tracks when he entered, seeing Logan with his gun trained on Spinelli, Lulu and Georgie.

"What's going on here, Son?"

"Get over there next to Georgie. No, wait; stand there, between Lulu and Georgie."

Now Lulu and Scott were between Spinelli and Georgie. They all knew that had significance to Logan. Spinelli had tried to come between Logan and lulu, so now Logan was coming between Spinelli and Georgie, and he was using lulu and his father to do it. Lulu had betrayed Logan, and Scott had abandoned him. Now they were helping him get back at Spinelli. In Logan's twisted mind, Lulu was hurting her best friend, which was exactly what Logan wanted.

"Now I can make all of you pay," Logan said with an oily grin. "Scott left me and my mother, so he's gonna die for that. You three all beat me up at one point, so that's what you're paying for. Spinelli punched me at Jason's, then last week and the two of you landed me in jail. Lulu threatened me with a bottle once, bit me at the courthouse and spat in my face a few minutes ago, not to mention what she's been doing to me emotionally when she bounces back and forth between me and Johnny Zacchara. Georgie slapped me. Did any of you think you could get away with it?"

"Do you honestly think you're gonna get away with this?" Scott asked.

"What can any of you do? Who's got the gun? I was just telling these three how I became the Text Message Killer."

Scott stared. Spinelli almost felt sorry for him, but the memory of Jason's face when he told them of Emily's death squashed any feelings of sympathy for The Elder Unworthy. If Scott hadn't abandoned him, just maybe Logan wouldn't have come to Port Charles and none of this might have happened.

"I killed Leticia for Diego Alcazar and Jerry Jax. Don't' make me go over the rest of it again."

"Diego Alcazar's been dead for-" Georgie began.

"He survived when Sam shot him and Lorenzo hid him; now don't interrupt me again or your boyfriend will pay!"

He waited a few seconds, making sure no one else dared to interrupt, then continued.

"Carly thought she could tell me to stay away from Lulu; that's why I tried to kill her. Diego was mad that I didn't manage to do it at first, but he decided later that he wanted to do it himself and he wanted her to know it was him. He was real glad I killed Emily. He's really happy Jason's sister's dead. He would have done it himself, but I asked him to let me do it because she yelled at me that night. She said I was bullying Spinelli and told me to grow up. No one talks to me like that. He wanted Maxie dead because she sent him to prison; he wanted to do Maxie himself, but Coop beat him to it. Diego wasn't happy about that; you should be glad I'm gonna kill you today, Georgie, because if I don't Diego will. He said he actually wanted to try to make things up with you before Coop killed Maxie, but now that he can't get her and you're with him," he indicated Spinelli with a look that clearly said he didn't know why she'd chosen him, "Diego's gunning for you. Only he'll get you the same way he got Maxie."

"No, he won't," Lulu said with much more confidence and courage than she felt.

They all stared in surprise as Lulu suddenly threw the rock she was holding. Spinelli hadn't seen her bend to pick it up or he would have tried to stop her. What if The Crazy Cave Dweller shot her?

He didn't have the chance to shoot. The rock hit him in the head, hard. He went down and the gun flew from his hand.


	14. Chapter 14

They all stared for a moment. Scott was the first to speak.

"What did you do!" he screamed at Lulu. "You may have killed my son, you-"

"Fair Lulu was defending all of us, including you!"

Before Scott could respond, Jason ran into the cannery; the first thing he'd heard, not over the phone, was Scott screaming at Lulu.

"What happened here?"

"Lulu hit Logan with a rock," Georgie said. "Jason, he's the real-"

"I know; Spinelli had his phone on the whole time. I heard everything, but the last thing I heard before Scott started screaming was a loud thud."

Georgie smiled at Spinelli; The Jackal had also come through for them. Jason had arrived late, but he had arrived. Between Spinelli and Lulu, they'd managed to avoid four more murders.

Jason bent to check Logan's pulse.

"He's alive. I've got his confession recorded; we need to call the police."

"Wait," Spinelli said thoughtfully, frowning. "What is that?"

They listened carefully and heard a beeping sound. Jason followed it and found timers for explosives; apparently Logan had planted them under the building. Either that, or Diego had planted them, or had them planted.

"We gotta get outa here, right now!"

Scott bent to pick up Logan as Jason shepherded Spinelli, Georgie and lulu out the door."

"Jason," Georgie said, "shouldn't we help Scott?"

"I wanna make sure you three get out; then I'll come back and help Scott with Logan."

Jason didn't want to do that, but he would because he knew it was the right thing to do. Part of his mind told him to leave Logan; having him die in an explosion would save him the trouble of taking him out for Emily's murder, but the other part told him he would be in jail when he got out of the hospital from his head injury. They had a confession; Logan would be punished. Jason didn't have to do it; he only needed to know it was done.

Lulu was stunned; she couldn't say anything. She allowed Jason to lead her out of the cannery, wanting to tell him to go back for Logan now, but not able to. She couldn't get past the image of her hitting him with that rock. Laura had thought she'd killed Rick Webber; Lulu might have killed Logan. He was alive when Jason had checked his pulse, but that didn't mean he would stay alive. What if his injury was severe enough that he died while they'd been looking for the explosives? What if the cannery blew up before Scott and Jason could get him out? Lulu would be responsible for his death.

When Jason determined that they were far enough away that the kids wouldn't be hurt, he told them to head for the cars and turned to go back for Scott and Logan. Before he could take more than a few steps, the cannery exploded and he was thrown from his feet. Georgie screamed and Spinelli ran to help Jason.

"No, get the girls to the cars! There may have been more than one bomb; there might be more explosions. I'm OK!"

He stood up as he spoke. He couldn't go back for Logan or Scott now. Besides, they were probably already dead from the blast.

He assessed his injuries. He wasn't hurt badly, just bruised from landing on his back. He was going to have a bruise on his back and the back of his head, but it wasn't serious. He ran to catch up with the others.

By the time they reached the cars, Lulu and Georgie were shaking. Spinelli put an arm around each of them.

"Are you three OK?" Jason asked.

"The Blonde One is injured. The Simian One struck her twice."

"I'll call the cops and tell them about Logan and the explosion."

Jason went a few feet away to make the call. Spinelli looked at Georgie and Lulu with concern. They were still shaking and both had begun to cry, but for different reasons. Georgie was relieved and Lulu was feeling like a murderer.

"It's OK," he said gently. "It's over."

"I couldn't lose you, too," Georgie said shakily.

"You didn't. We're all OK."

"It's my fault," Lulu said, speaking for the first time since she'd thrown the rock at Logan."I hit him! I killed him; I'm just like my mother!"

"No, Fair One, you're not. Your mother didn't kill Rick Webber. The Knuckle Scraper was gonna kill all of us; you acted in self-defense."

"My mom thought so, too, and she lost her mind because-"

"You will not lose your mind," Spinelli said, firmly but gently. "You have your father's qualities, as well as your mother's; you're not exactly like her. She wasn't strong enough to deal with the possibility that she took another's life, even to defend herself, but you are."

"He's right," Jason said, having come back from calling the police. "You didn't cause the explosion; you only hit him. If the cannery hadn't blown up we'd have taken him to the hospital and they would have helped him."

Lulu didn't look convince.

"I wasn't trying to hit him," she said in a small voice. "I was aiming for the gun; I wanted to try to hit it out of his hand. But Scott stayed in there to help his son; I killed both of them by-"

"What if you'd missed?" Georgie demanded, still shaken. "Lulu, if you'd missed the gun and him he might have killed us!"

"I had to try, Georgie; I didn't want any of us to get killed, even Logan. I wanted him to go to jail, but I didn't want him dead."

"Why not?" Jason asked coldly. "He killed your brother's fiancé, my sister."

"Don't tell me you still think there was good in him after everything he told us," Georgie said.

"No," Lulu said, "but maybe he could have been reformed in jail."

Jason and Georgie looked incredulous. Spinelli was sympathetic to her feelings, but shared Stone Cold and Wise Georgie's disbelief in her reasoning.

"He killed in cold blood, Blonde One. He tried to kill The Valkyrie for trying to protect you. He killed Emily for standing up for me when The Crabby Commando, along with your cool but intimidating parental unit and The Elder Unworthy were ganging up on me, trying to get information I couldn't give them, even if I had it, which I did not. He killed an innocent woman who only wanted to nurture two sweet little boys just to send a message to their father."

"Spinelli, I know all this!"

"I don't think you do," Georgie said, her fear now turning to anger. "He was gonna kill us, Lulu; me, Spinelli and you." She put special emphasis on the words "and you." "He was also gonna kill his own father. He would have killed us and escaped and I'm sure Scott made sure no one would have found him."

As they talked, they began to hear sirens in the distance. By the time Georgie had finished, Mack, Lucky and several other cops had arrived, as well as paramedics and fire fighters.

"Georgie," Mack said, running to them, "are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she said, hugging him."

What happened here?" Lucky demanded, glaring at Spinelli and Jason.

"Scott and Logan happened," Georgie said, glaring back at Lucky, "and don't look at Spinelli and Jason like it's their fault. Logan kidnapped Lulu and Spinelli followed him to try to save her. It's not his and Jason's job to make sure she doesn't put herself in danger by dating pigs; it's hers."

"Georgie," Lulu began, offended.

"she's got a point," Lucky said, "but we're gonna discuss that later."

"Morgan, how did you know about this?" Mack asked.

"Spinelli called me as he was following Lulu and Logan; he thought he was gonna need help."

"Why didn't you call the police?" Lucky asked Spinelli.

"I went with my first instinct," Spinelli said honestly. "I reasoned that Stone Cold would be able to find us more quickly because a dispatcher would not have to give him instructions."

Georgie wanted to slap the condescending, sardonic look off Lucky's face.

"Spinelli kept the line open and I recorded Logan's confession; he's the Text Message Killer.""

We knew that already," Lucky said smugly. "We were gonna tell the judge at the hearing before Scott escaped."

Everyone stared at him.

"Cooper's clues?" Georgie asked.

Mack nodded.

"How did Scot escape, anyway?" Lulu asked.

"All we know for sure is that he couldn't have done it without inside help," Mack said, "and I'm gonna find out who on the inside was helping him and have their badges!"

While some police went in with paramedics and fire fighters, others searched Logan's car. They found his cell phone. He had kept the piggybacked text messages, but there were some missing; the ones sent to Carly the night of the black and white ball, the one sent to Sonny and the one sent to the Mayor. Mack, Harper, Rodriguez and Lucky listened to Jason's recording and supposed Diego had been the one to send the missing messages. It made sense that he would send most of the messages and Logan would do most of the killing. Now they had to find Diego and Jerry. They hoped Jerry didn't know he'd been found out.

After the police were finally done questioning them, they were allowed to leave. Lulu's injuries weren't severe enough for her to have to go to the hospital, so Spinelli dropped her off at the courthouse to get her car, then intended to head back to his place. Georgie would meet him there later; she had some homework to do. Spinelli thought her resilience must be immeasurable if she could concentrate on homework after all they'd just been through. On the way home, he got a call from Epiphany asking him to meet her at the hospital. She wanted to give him Stan's personal effects so he and Jason could look for clues as to who had killed him. This would be The Jackal PI's first unofficial case.


	15. Chapter 15

As he waited for Georgie, Spinelli went through Stan's things. The first thing he found was a book, The Island of Dr. Moreau. Everything began to click; Spinelli had an image in his mind of an arrow-shaped mouse pointer heading for its intended target. It looked as if Moreau, Jerry Jax, had killed Stan. But why? Once he figured that out, the arrow would become an eye beam.

Stan's computer was also in the box. Spinelli would have to hack into it. He felt slightly guilty; Stan was a fellow hacker, and he was dead. But Nurse Johnson wanted Spinelli to look for clues, so he wasn't violating any ethics, or Stanford's privacy.

He was shocked at what he found. Stan had files on all the major mob family's, including Mr. Corinthos, Sir, and the Zacchara's. Why would he have these?

He also found Stan's journal. Like Spinelli, Stan kept his journal on his computer, but for some reason had not blanked the screen as Spinelli did. He opened it, feeling another pang of guilt, and began to read.

Moreau had pulled him away from the Corinthos organization to work for him. Spinelli learned from the journal that someone else was also involved, someone Moreau talk to, but Stan had never met. He only knew that he answered to Moreau, who answered to whoever the stranger was, but that Moreau didn't always cooperate and didn't like his superior. Spinelli wondered if the superior was the son of Evil Al, or if Moreau had more than one boss. The Unhinged One had two hands; maybe he had one in each cookie jar.

Stanford apparently didn't know who Moreau really was; he always referred to him as Moreau, or the boss, never Jerry or Mr. Jax. If Moreau, or one of his enemies, had killed Stan, Spinelli hoped he would be able to fit the entire puzzle together by using these files. With any luck, Epiphany would have the answers she needed by tomorrow.

Stan's last entries grew increasingly more paranoid, if someone who was reading them didn't know what had happened to him. He was afraid of Moreau; he was sure he was marked for death. Moreau's plan was to gain control over all five families. He had hired Stan away from Mr. Corinthos, Sir, thinking that would hinder Sonny's organization. It hadn't; Spinelli had been working for Jason for almost a year by the time Moreau had hired Stan. But Stan's motives for leaving had been pure; he had been hoping to infiltrate Moreau's organization to find and exploit any weakness. Then he would report to Sonny and Jason with what he had and they could eliminate Moreau as a threat, as well as using what Stan had on the other families against them, if needed, to prevent future conflicts.

Spinelli was surprised to see an entry about him in Stan's journal. He said he'd left Sonny and Jason in good hands in terms of Cyberspace, but that part of the reason Stan had wanted to leave was because he felt Spinelli was replacing him. Jason seemed to rely more and more on The Jackal and Stan felt pushed aside.

Spinelli felt another pang of guilt, this time for a different reason. He knew how it felt to be displaced; that was how he'd been feeling over the past few months when Lulu had chosen Logan. He sent a mental apology to his former Cyber rival.

Stan's last journal entry surprised Spinelli even more than anything that had happened today. It was a letter, addressed specifically to him. Now he knew why Stan hadn't blanked the screen; he had wanted Spinelli to see this.

"Spinelli, if you're reading this, I'm dead and my mother has given you my computer in hopes that you can find out who killed me. She would know I'd never forgive her if she gave my personal things to the police. You've been reading my journal, so you know my suspicions. Moreau is the one who wants me dead. I don't know how he'll do it, but I don't expect to live much longer. I hope I'm wrong, but if you're reading this, I'm not. If you're reading this, Moreau has taken me out. He wants control over all the territory, not just Port Charles; he wants to overthrow every family contained in these files. Sonny and Jason need to be careful; Moreau is power hungry and he'll do anything to get what he wants. I bit off more than I can chew this time. Tell them I'm sorry; I really thought I could help them by doing this. Tell my mother I love her, and please, I know she wants you and Jason to look for clues, but don't open the envelope addressed to her; it's for her eyes only."

The envelope was still in the box; he hadn't removed it yet. He wouldn't remove it out of respect for Stanford's request, but he would let Nurse Epiphany know it was in there when he returned the box to her, which he would do tomorrow. Now he knew Moreau was her son's killer and that Moreau was Jerry Jax. The arrow in his mind was now an eye beam.

He shut down Stan's computer and put it back in the box. As he closed the box, he saw Georgie's car pulling into the parking lot through his living room window. He smiled as he opened the door, glad she would take his mind off Stan.

They hadn't been friends, but Stan hadn't deserved to die. Epiphany had lost her child and that thought led him to think of Kendra, which led him to think of his choices. Every choice he made from now on would affect her and he had no idea how much one decision would change her life, or how good or bad the changes would be.

"What's wrong?" Georgie asked immediately, seeing the troubled look on his face that his smile couldn't quite hide.

She handed him a bag, which made him smile again, despite his troubling thoughts. She had brought food from Kelly's, including barbecue chips and orange soda.

"Jerry Jax, in the guise of the illusive Mr. Moreau, killed Stanford Johnson."

"Have you told Epiphany?"

He shook his head.

"Jackal PI just found out before you arrived."

"You solved your first case within a matter of hours," she said, smiling proudly at him.

He couldn't help smiling back, but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"What is it, Spinelli? Why do you look so worried. Jerry's gonna be arrested, not only for Stan's murder, thanks to you, but because of his involvement with Diego and Logan. He had to know Logan was the Text Message Killer, right?"

He nodded.

"Stan made-" he paused, searching for the right phrase. "He made questionable choices. So have I and now that I'm preparing to be a father, I'm the one questioning them."

"Are you talking about your involvement with the business?"

He nodded.

"It started with Evil Al; only I didn't know he was evil. I didn't know that what he was paying me to do would possibly cost lives. I didn't see the bigger picture. I was helping someone; being paid for it was the proverbial icing on the cake. Then I started working for Stone cold for the same reason and we became friends. I stay with him because of our friendship; he needs me. He doesn't have many friends and neither do I. He was the first person to accept and value The Jackal, both as a friend and an employee. I only have you, him, Nadine and Lulu, and to an extent The Senior Sir. Except for Nurse Nadine and the father of Mr. Corinthos, Sir, I and all my friends were in serious danger today. We could have all been killed and Baby Kendra would have only had Nadine."

"Are you thinking about leaving?"

"Port Charles, no, but the organization? I don't wanna abandon Stone Cold, but I wanna abandon my daughter even less. I think I may have to do as my master suggested and think about other options while I still can. He says the longer you stay in the harder it is to get out."

"Can I tell you something that might sound selfish?"

"Of course; you can always tell me anything."

"I want you to get out of the organization, too, while you still can. I lost Maxie; I don't wanna lose you, too. No matter what happens, if we stay a couple forever or if someday we just become friends again, you're so important to me. It would crush me if something happened to you."

"That's not selfish," he said, holding her.

"Please," she said, putting her arms around him, "I'm not asking you to decide tonight; in fact, I don't think you should. This decision will affect the rest of your life." She refused to add, "as well as Kendra's," because she didn't want to use his daughter to get what she wanted. "But please think about leaving. Think hard about it because Jason's right. I'm afraid you might find yourself so deeply involved in it someday that you won't be able to get out. You may not become an enforcer like Jason, but with your knowledge of their organization, either someone might use you to get information or you might know too much to be able to leave safely. I don't think Jason would kill you," she went on quickly, "but you might not be allowed to leave either."

"I understand what you're saying. Stone Cold is not the only protector of the night. If The Jackal becomes a liability, Mr. Corinthos, Sir, can have him eliminated without Stone Cold's knowledge or approval, and he would never approve."

She nodded.

They began to eat and talk about more pleasant subjects, such as Spinelli's plans for the baby's room. Georgie was going to help him decorate it and they were both looking forward to the project as much as they looked forward to planning Georgie's trip to Ibiza. No one had any idea that in a few months, something was going to happen that would make up Spinelli's mind once and for all. One single event would change his life forever because it would be the deciding factor in whether or not he would leave the mob.


	16. Chapter 16

Before going to bed, Spinelli checked the news home page and saw that Jerry Jax had been arrested for aiding and abetting a fugitive and conspiracy to commit murder and that Scott's and Logan's bodies had been recovered. It had also been discovered that Logan was a war criminal. No details were given about his crimes, but there was speculation that Scott Baldwin had known about it and had tried to get the charges against Logan dropped so his son wouldn't have to go to a military prison.

They were both dead. Spinelli had mixed feelings; their lives had been cut short, but he was relieved that Logan could never hurt anyone again. Logan was dead, Jerry was in prison, but the problem was finding and stopping Diego. The orchestrator of the Text Message Killings, possibly another Text Message Killer himself, was still out there. Spinelli only hoped they could find and stop him before it was too late.

Lulu came over the next morning, looking as if she' hadn't slept.

"Are you OK?"

"They're both dead," she said numbly.

Spinelli nodded.

"Coffee?"

"Please."

He didn't usually drink coffee, but there were times when he needed it, and his friends drank it, so he had a small coffee pot and was surprised at how frequently he used it, even for just himself. He supposed it had been an acquired taste.

Lulu was silent the whole time he prepared the coffee. He sat next to her as it began to percolate and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Talk to me, Fair One," he said gently. "Tell me what you're feeling."

"I brought him to the ball. I allowed him to murder my brother's fiancé. He needs surgery to remove his tumor and he won't have it because he wants to be with her. I not only caused her death, but his, too."

"None of this is your fault. There was no way you could have known what he was doing; you couldn't have known he would kill Emily. As for your brother, the decision not to have the surgery is his choice and you can't blame yourself because he's too wrapped up in his own grief to think about his living relatives. Eventually he'll realize how much his son needs him and come to his senses."

"If he doesn't die first," she said, starting to cry. "You and everyone else tried to warn me about Logan. Why didn't I listen? Why don't I ever listen to any of the people who really care about me? It's my fault Emily's dead."

"None of us knew he was a killer; we tried to warn you that he would break your heart," he said, pulling her head to his shoulder and hugging her, thinking in the back of his mind that he always ended up comforting his female friends on the couch. "I thought he was innocent of Emily's murder, too, and you know I hated him. I trusted that he was not the killer; I trusted my instincts and they were wrong, at least where Cooper and Logan were concerned. I never thought Coop would kill Maxie, or anyone else, until after she was dead and Wise Georgie began to suspect him. As for Logan, I was afraid my hatred for him would cloud my judgment, so I tried to look at the situation objectively and ended up going the other way; I was too objective."

"But you didn't hit someone with a rock and then leave him to blow up."

"He would have killed all of us if you hadn't hit him. You were brave enough to do what needed to be done. I was too scared of leaving my daughter an orphan or getting you and Gentle Georgie killed. I couldn't act; I was paralyzed with fear."

"But you were scared for the rest of us, and for Kendra, not yourself. You didn't act, but for the right reasons."

He had been scared for himself, but not primarily, and he knew that was what she meant.

"I could help Johnny, but I couldn't help Logan."

"Johnny?"

"I found him the morning after his boat blew up. I'd left here and gone to talk to my dad. I thought he'd gone to the Haunted Star because Tracey said he'd left the hospital. He wasn't there; he'd skipped town. But I found Johnny unconscious and helped him; he had an infection where his leg had been cut. He's gonna be OK."

Spinelli didn't remind her that she'd said she would stay away from all bad boys after Logan had hit her; he would have helped, too, if he could have. No matter how much he disliked someone, he didn't' wish death on anyone.

"Have you two been seeing each other?" he asked cautiously.

"I ran into him last night," she said, and by the tone of her voice and the look on her face, he knew she was going to tell him something he didn't want to hear. "I took a walk and he was coming out of Jake's. We went back to the Haunted Star and- and- we spent the night together."

He stared at her. He didn't know whether he wanted to be sympathetic, angry, appalled or some combination of the three. He was sympathetic that she would need to resort to sleeping with The Warped One to be comforted. He was appalled that he would take advantage of her vulnerability, but not surprised. He was angry that she couldn't say she was going to do something and then do it. She had said she was through with bad boys and there she was last night, only a few hours after being used as a punching bag for the second day in a week, sleeping with one on her father's boat.

"It wasn't planned, Spinelli; it just happened. His sister is back and it's brought up a lot of bad memories for him and after what happened to us yesterday, I- I would have come to you, but I ran into him first and everything just- happened."

He sighed. He and Jolene had kind of just happened, too; he knew how it worked. Only in his case, he had wanted Jolene to love him and thought she had. He strongly suspected that Lulu didn't love Johnny and that Johnny was similar to Logan in that he would take advantage of any situation.

"What are you gonna do now?"

"I don't know," she said tiredly, wiping a hand across her face.

He stood up; the coffee was done. He poured cups for both of them and sat back on the couch with her.

"Thanks," she said, accepting the coffee, then going back to the previous conversation. "I don't wanna tease him or play with him, but I don't wanna get involved in another bad situation either."

"That's good," he said with relief.

"I guess I'll just wait and see what he does."

"Are you sure that's wise?"

"No, but he may have just wanted a one night stand last night; he may not even call me again."

Spinelli secretly hoped she was right. Johnny Zacchara was the last person in the world Lulu should be getting involved with; Mr. Corinthos, Sir, might be going to war with him soon. Trevor Lancing had seen to it that something bad would happen when he'd provoked Jason into pulling a gun on him. Lulu put herself in enough danger without getting directly in the middle of a mob war.

She left shortly after finishing her coffee. Lucky wanted to speak to her and she wanted to find out what would be done about funeral arrangements for Scott and Logan. She felt she owed it to them to make arrangements if no one else would.

Spinelli called Jason and told him that Moreau had killed Stan. Jason asked for copies of the files, which Spinelli created and would give him later that day. Then he went to the hospital to give Epiphany back Stan's possessions and tell her his findings. He also gave her Stan's last message, "tell my mother I love her," and told her about the envelope that was addressed to her. He told her Stan had said it was for her eyes only and that he'd honored his request not to open it.

"Is Jason gonna have someone on the inside take care of Jerry?" Epiphany asked.

"I honestly don't know; he doesn't tell me all his plans."

"The less you know about some things the better, huh?"

He nodded.

"Thank you for finding the answers so quickly."

"Stanford made it easy."

"What do I do with his computer?"

"That would be your decision," he said, surprised by the question.

She took it out of the box and handed it to him.

"You wish The Jackal to have your Cyber Savvy Son's computer?"

She gave him an annoyed look at his description of Stan. It had come out automatically due to his surprise, and his inability to think of anything to say that might comfort her. He hated feeling helpless and inadequate.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly.

"Take the information Stan had on the other families to Sonny; maybe it'll help him. I know Stanford would want that. You can do whatever you want with the computer after that. His work on that thing is what got him killed."

Spinelli could only nod, having no idea what to say in response to a comment like that. He didn't tell her Jason had already asked for the files; he didn't know what Stone Cold was planning to do with them. He got up to leave, but turned back when she called his name.

"You'll have a child in a few months. Think about that while you're finding information for the mob. Do you want your baby growing up in a world like that?"

"I have been giving this matter a great deal of consideration and am taking steps to protect myself and my daughter. She is her father's first priority."

She didn't look as if she believed him, but he knew there was nothing he could say that would convince her. She was in pain and he was still in the mob, for now, and hadn't actually said he was leaving. He was following Georgie's advice and weighing all his options before he did anything concrete. If he'd had any way to see into the future, he would have left the mob that day and told Jason what had decided him. If he'd been able to see that, he might have been able to prevent what would happen in early April, an event that would change things for everyone involved, no matter how remotely.


	17. Chapter 17

The rest of January was busy, but undramatic, except for the fact that Carly found out that Jason was Jake's father and Jason had to fight to keep her from making a mess in order to stick it to Elizabeth and get Jason's son for him against Jason's wishes. Georgie helped Spinelli set up and decorate the baby's room; it was the most fun either of them had had in months.

"Are you sure you want another pink room?" she teased.

He laughed."

This one isn't for me," he said happily. "My daughter will be happy here, and somehow I have a feeling she's gonna like the color. There will be nothing regrettable about this pink room."

In early February, which would be a month filled with surprises, both wonderful and horrible, Sam was hit by a car. Whoever had hit her hadn't even stopped; they had left her there to die. Sam said she'd seen Diego and that he'd sent her a text message. Jason asked Spinelli to look into it, partly because Elizabeth suspected herself of being the driver. She'd been upset and drowsy from her nightmares and the medication she was still taking for the leg she'd cut while trying to rescue Jake from the fire. She shouldn't have left the hospital, but she had needed to see Jason. Only Max and Spinelli knew they'd been seeing each other secretly for weeks.

They were all relieved that Sam would be OK. She had an injured hip, but she would recover. But Elizabeth had to be cleared and the real hit and run driver had to be found. There was blood on Elizabeth's bumper, which Jason had fixed. He also found out Carly had had her bumper fixed. Spinelli was able to rule out Carly, Elizabeth and The Princely One. There was only one suspect left and Spinelli hoped it wasn't her. He didn't want to have to tell Jason that his mother had hit Sam and left her.

When Spinelli went to give Jason an address to a chop shop to rule out Prince Nikolas, he met Claudia Zacchara, Johnny's sister. She had a strange affect on him; she was hot! He didn't know she was Claudia Zacchara; neither did Jason. The two of them had been playing pool together when Spinelli had walked into Jake's. But the second he replaced an image of her with one of Sweet Georgie, all thoughts of the mysterious Vixonella flew right out of his mind.

For Valentine's Day, Spinelli set up his kitchen to look like a restaurant in Ibiza. He had a video with sights and sounds of the city on his computer and set it up on the window sill facing them as they sat at the table and had found authentic foods, which he'd ordered online, to Georgie's delight and amazement. She was so taken by his romantic efforts that she didn't notice how nervous he was. He was going to tell her something tonight that he'd never said before.

"Remember how we became a couple the day of Maxie's funeral?" she asked as they ate by candlelight. "Something else wonderful happened that day, too; I just found out. Robin is pregnant."

"That's great!" he said sincerely, smiling.

"She's wanted this for so long; I'm glad she's finally gonna have a child. I'm glad it happened when it did, too; it was almost like as Maxie was leaving she gave us another person to love. BJ died and gave Maxie her heart and Maxie died and gave Robin a baby. Everything has balance, as you say."

Spinelli didn't know that Georgie knew Robin had asked him to be a donor and he couldn't comply. She didn't want to ask him about it because she didn't want to embarrass him. But they were both glad he hadn't been able to produce Robin's child; it would have made things weird for him and Georgie. He didn't tell her Robin had asked him either. He knew she knew he was capable; after all, his daughter was going to be born in early June. But he didn't want her to know he'd frozen. Jason had said he'd had good reasons, but it still embarrassed him.

After dinner, he brought her into the living room and put a CD on and they danced. It was the first time she'd ever danced with him; in fact, it was the first time she'd danced since the black and white ball. Lulu had been practicing with him so he'd be a good dancer by the time this day came. He wanted everything to be perfect and he didn't want to be clumsy.

He smiled as the CD began to play "My Funny Valentine." It was one of his Granny's favorites. She played it every Valentine's day and he knew the song by heart. Without thinking, he began to sing along.

She stared up at him as they danced and he sang, smiling in amazement. He never failed to surprise her, even when he wasn't trying.

"Wow!" she said softly when the song was over. "I didn't know you could sing. You're incredible!"

If he wasn't so intent on her and what he was about to tell her, he would have blushed and said something modest but sincere. He knew he could carry a tune and had good pitch, but he didn't consider himself incredible. His Granny had once told him he should join the chorus at school, having heard him sing that song one Valentine's Day when she'd been playing it on her old record player, but he was more interested in Cyberspace. Plus, he didn't want his peers to hear him sing; they teased him enough as it was. If he joined the chorus he would never have a minute's peace. He didn't even sing that much; right now, with Georgie, he'd just been caught up in the song and the mood and a taste of home.

He looked into her eyes and took her face in his hands, looking both nervous and tender. He had to tell her now or he would lose his nerve, but he didn't want it to sound as if he was saying it just to get it over with; he wasn't. He spoke softly but clearly. He refused to allow his nerves to cause his voice or his vocabulary to make her doubt his sincerity. He would speak with no long speeches and absolutely no Jackalese.

Georgie waited expectantly as he stared intently into her eyes. She knew he wanted to say something very important and the silence was beginning to make her nervous. Then he finally spoke.

"I love you."

She stared in disbelief for a second. She'd wanted him to say that forever.

"I love you, too!" she cried happily, throwing her arms around him and kissing him.

His face lit up. He was happy and relieved; he had been afraid it was too soon to reveal how intense his feelings were. He'd been afraid of scaring her off. The fact that she returned his feelings, that she actually loved him back, made him feel as if it was his birthday and Christmas rolled into one beautifully wrapped package.

The next day, Kate Howard was shot and little Michael went missing. At the Coffee House, Jason had Spinelli do a background check on Claudia Zacchara; Sonny suspected them of taking Michael and shooting Kate. That was when they realized who the woman was at Jake's that day they had ruled out Nikolas as Sam's hit and run driver.

Johnny came in as Jason and Spinelli were staring in surprise at Claudia's picture.

"Have either of you seen Lulu?"

"No," Spinelli said, "but we have seen your sister and The Jackal's eyes are burning with hotness."

He regretted saying it as soon as it was out of his mouth. Why had he said that? He didn't blame Johnny for his angry reaction; he wouldn't want someone to talk about his sister like that, if he'd had one. He would be equally angry if someone had spoken that way of Lulu or Georgie. He respected women; what he'd just said to Johnny was an unwanted, unintentional reversion to the days when he'd called Samantha The Goddess and made comments about not wanting Jason to mar her beautiful body by giving her a baby. He had never meant any disrespect, but the comments had upset her, especially when she'd been told she would never be able to have children of her own.

As he'd said that about Claudia, his thoughts had been on Lulu and how he didn't want Johnny to know where she was. The Septic Son was bad for her and she'd already been hurt more than enough by Logan. His mouth had seemed to act of its own accord before his brain could catch up with it and focus on what he was saying.

"You're looking at pictures of my sister on the Internet?" Johnny demanded, making a grab for him.

"Leave him alone," Jason said, grabbing Johnny's arm. "I told him to look for information on her."

Georgie walked in just in time to see Jason stop Johnny from hurting Spinelli. She looked at all of them, wanting to go over, but if this was business, she would get in the way and possibly cause trouble.

"Why don't you go talk to Georgie while I talk to Johnny?" Jason suggested.

Spinelli nodded, got up and walked over to her, throwing a sheepish, sincerely apologetic look over his shoulder at Johnny.

"Why was he trying to grab you?" Georgie asked, obviously worried.

"The Jackal's big mouth got in the way of his common sense again." He lowered his voice so only she could hear. "I'm telling you this because I don't wanna keep secrets from you, except of course the necessary ones having to do with the business. Stone Cold had me do a background check on Claudia Zacchara, the sister of the Septic Son. We were looking at her picture when he walked in; we were surprised to find we'd met her the other day. Jackal PI went to Jake's to give Stone Cold a piece of information he'd requested and found him playing pool with her, only she didn't give either of us her name."

"So he walked in and thought you were looking at her for- other reasons."

"Yes, but I don't do that. I've never wanted to look at pictures of women on the Internet for- for that reason. It just feels wrong. I don't know if I should have told you I was doing a background check on The Vixonella, but I didn't want you to think I was one of those guys."

She smiled and spoke in a teasing tone.

"Good; I'd hate to think I'd have to compete with a picture."

"You don't have to compete with anyone," he said seriously.

They kissed and he thanked the Gods and Goddesses that he'd finally found her. They had finally found a way to bring him to his senses and make him stop chasing women who didn't want him, who made him compete for them. He had thought it was romantic when he was competing for Lulu with Milo and Dillon, but when Jolene had been trying to play him against Stone Cold, he realized there was no romance in trying to win a woman like a prize. If either of them had returned his Romantic feelings even slightly, he would not have had to fight so hard to get them to notice him. He would not have had to prove his worthiness over anyone else's. Georgie saw him for who he was and accepted him, flaws and all. She returned his feelings; in fact, she'd brought them out in him. She'd been the one to fall for him first when he'd seen her as a Faithful Friend. She was so much more to him now. He couldn't imagine his life without her.

Later, Jason found gun oil in Michael's backpack, which had been left on the docks, and began to suspect that Michael had shot Kate. Spinelli found security footage of Michael running away from the docks, seemingly in fear. He found later footage of the boy hiding on a cargo ship. Spinelli hoped that with his help, Jason would bring Michael safely home to his parents in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, Diego had other plans.


	18. Chapter 18

Jason's cell rang as Spinelli was showing him the security footage. It was Max, telling him that someone had hit him with a car and that he'd seen Elizabeth in the car with whoever had hit him. Jason and Spinelli rushed over to Sam's apartment building to help Max.

He was not seriously injured. He said the guy had a mask on, but that he suspected it was Diego; he was the right height and build. Since Diego hadn't been caught yet, he was the logical suspect.

"How is he getting around the city without anyone seeing him?" Max asked. "I mean, he doesn't go around with a mask all the time; that would be too conspicuous."

"We'll figure that out later," Jason said. "Elizabeth's in trouble, and since Sam's not here and Diego tried to kill her before, she might be with them, too."

"I didn't see her."

"He could have her stashed somewhere."

"Stone Cold," Spinelli said, coming to his feet after searching the floor, "I found Samantha's cell phone under the sofa. She appears to have recorded a conversation with The Son of Evil Al."

They listened and Jason figured out where they were going.

"He's taking them to Hangman's Bridge."

"How do you know?" Max asked.

"That's where I dumped Alcazar's body. Spinelli, I need you to find out how he's been getting around; we may need that information if he gets away."

When Jason left, Spinelli brought up blueprints of the city and determined that the only way Diego could navigate the city without anyone's knowledge was through the sewers. He printed out copies of the blueprints of both the sewers and the city itself so they would have an idea where under the city they were if they had to go through, then got in his car and followed Jason to Hangman's Bridge. He had a strong feeling his mentor would need help, and he was confident enough in his self-defense training now to be able to be of some help against The Son of Evil Al, as long as Diego didn't have a gun.

He arrived just in time to see Jason and Diego struggling on the bridge. Diego's gun flew out of his hand and went over the bridge. Something was wrong; there was too much blood. Where was all that coming from?

"Spinelli," someone called.

He looked and saw Elizabeth running towards him.

"Jason is injured; he had to break the window of the car to get me out. His hands are hurt badly. Sam's still in the trunk.

Spinelli ran toward them, but the car went over the bridge with Sam still inside. Jason shoved Diego aside and ran, trying to get to the car. Diego, probably thinking that no one could save Sam now and that he had to save himself, got away. Spinelli ran after him, staying far enough back so that he could see Diego, but keeping quiet and hoping Diego wouldn't see him.

As he followed the evildoer, he realized with a jolt of fear where they were headed; Diego was going to Kelly's. Georgie was there; her shift wasn't even half over. Spinelli had no way of knowing how many other people would be there, but he suddenly knew intuitively that one of Diego's targets, if not his only one, would be Georgie. He couldn't lose her; he couldn't fail her. He knew without a shred of doubt that he would find a way to kill Diego if he had to.

He suddenly realized how he might be able to stop Diego. The killer didn't have a gun anymore, so Spinelli could use his self-defense techniques. But he needed the element of surprise. In order to achieve that, he had to casually walk into Kelly's and pretend to be surprised to find Diego there. After that, he prayed, the rest would be a piece of cake.

He gave Diego a minutes head start, then exited the sewer. He quickly ran to the Coffee House and into the bathroom and cleaned himself up the best he could, not wanting Diego to see the sewer scum and whatever else he'd picked up in there; that would ruin things for sure. Thankful that Kelly's and the Coffee House were in such close proximity, he ran to the door and casually opened it.

The first thing he saw was Diego holding Georgie with one arm and Lulu with the other. Both looked terrified. Mike, thankfully the only other person there at the moment, stood with a knife in his hands, but obviously afraid to strike for fear of hitting one of the girls. This was now Spinelli's fear, too. How could he hurt Diego without hurting Georgie or Lulu?

Diego looked up when he heard the door close. They had never actually met in person, but Diego had seen and heard of Spinelli; that was evident by the look on his face.

"Get over there next to Mike," the killer said calmly, "or I'll snap both their necks like twigs right in front of your eyes."

The girls looked over to see him standing by the door.

"Spinelli, run!" they screamed together, both knowing he had no intention of running and leaving them in the hands of anyone who wanted to hurt them.

"Don't even think about it," Diego warned, tightening his grip on them. "Do as I say or they're both dead, and then I'll kill Mike and then you."

"Psychological warfare," Spinelli thought incoherently as he joined mike.

He couldn't do this; he couldn't give in to the fear. Georgie and Lulu needed him. Kendra needed him. He had to make sure all of them got out of this alive.

He gulped, not entirely faking his fear.

"You don't- you don't need them," he said in a voice that tried to sound calm and pleading at the same time. "If all you need is a hostage, then- then take me. I'm Stone- I'm Jason's friend; he'll do what you want to get me back."

"Spinelli, no!" Lulu and Georgie said, both horrified.

"I don't want hostages," Diego scoffed. "I want revenge. Georgie said she was my friend, but the minute I do something she doesn't like she tells me to stay out of her life. Lulu decides one minute that she's gonna help me get Georgie by lying and sleeping with Dillon and the next she decides to tell him the truth and wreck everything. And don't think I don't know she helped you get Sam and Jason off when my father and Rick Lancing tried to frame them."

So Diego knew who he was, or at least a little, anyway. That didn't matter; if he could get close enough and convince Diego to let at least one of the girls go, then he could act.

"The Jackal has done a lot more than that," he said with fake cockiness, but not bothering to mask his fear. "From that day forward I did everything I could to help Stone cold and Mr. Corinthos, Sir, thwart your father. Who do you think doctored those records to make it look like your father was alive so Stone Cold would be acquitted of his murder?"

That part was a lie and Mike, Lulu and Georgie knew it, but all that mattered was that Diego believed it. The three of them looked at him, obviously wondering what he was up to.

"You did what?" Diego snarled.

Spinelli nodded with a grin that was not entirely fake. Diego had taken the bate.

He suddenly released the girls, shoving them both into a nearby table. Spinelli had hoped he would release them, but not so forcefully. Georgie fell and he heard a thud that gave him a chill of fear as her head hit the ground. Diego rushed at him before he could move towards her and he had to defend himself.

As Diego and Spinelli began to struggle, Mike ran for the phone and called the police. He also told them to send paramedics for Georgie. Lulu was helping her to her feet, but she seemed dazed and Mike wanted to have her checked out to make sure she didn't have a concussion.

In his haste to get to the phone, Mike had dropped his knife without thinking. Spinelli, in an attempt to keep Diego from reaching his hands around his throat, kicked his opponent's legs out from under him. Diego fell, landing on the knife. He lay on his back, the knife piercing one of his lungs. He took gasping, gurgling breaths.

Spinelli stared, feeling a mixture of horror and relief. Georgie and Lulu stared, standing together against the table.

"Make that two," Mike said into the phone. We also have a knife wound and from the sound of his breathing I'd say one of his lungs is pierced. Spinelli," he said, taking the phone away from his ear, "are you hurt?"

Spinelli shook his head numbly. He didn't know what to feel about what he'd just done. He didn't feel sorry. This man was dying right in front of him and he had kicked him so that he'd fallen onto the knife. He had meant to disable him, not kill him. Shouldn't he be sorry?

He looked over at Lulu and Georgie, still standing by the table, then at Mike, still on the phone with 911. Diego had planned to kill them. No, he was not sorry and he shouldn't be. He had saved three innocent lives today; one of them alone was worth ten of this bitter, crazy, evil man lying on the floor in a growing pool of his own blood. It was terrible to have to kill anyone, but Spinelli knew he wouldn't do anything differently if he had to do it over again. Besides, maybe the paramedics would arrive in time to save him.

At this decision, his paralysis broke and he ran to Georgie and Lulu.

"Are you OK?" he asked Georgie breathlessly, still panting from shock, exertion and fear as he stared at the goose egg on her head.

"I think so," she said groggily.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked Lulu, who shook her head.

He put his arms around Georgie and sat down in the booth with her. She put her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, alarming him.

"No, don't go to sleep, Georgie; stay awake."

She lifted her head and looked at Diego, still gasping and gurgling on the floor.

"I'm not sure what happened," she said. "I'm so sleepy."

"You may have a concussion," Mike said, hanging up with 911 and coming over to them. "The police and paramedics will be here soon. As for what happened, Jackal PI here gave Diego a kick that sent him sprawling and Diego fell on my knife. I must have dropped it on my way to the phone."

"I didn't mean for him to be so grievously injured," Spinelli said, still feeling numb. "I only wanted to detain him until the law abiding ones could arrive.""

You did what you had to do," Georgie said. "His falling on the knife was an accident and if he dies it'll be his own fault for trying to hurt all of us. What you did was self-defense."

"She's right," Mike said, putting his hand on Spinelli's shoulder. "Diego would have killed us if it hadn't been for you."

"You're both wonderful," Lulu said, giving each man a one-armed hug.

Georgie nodded, then put her hand to her head.

"You were both really brave."

Before the police and paramedics, Nikolas arrived with Nadine.

"Wait," Mike said urgently. "Don't come any closer; this is a crime scene. I don't know where my head is today; I should have put up the closed sign."

"Diego?" Nikolas asked incredulously, staring at the bloody, gasping man on the floor.

"Long story," Mike said. "Suffice it to say we have Spinelli to thank that Lulu, Georgie and I are not the ones lying on the floor in a pool of blood."

"Why didn't you finish him off?" Nikolas demanded angrily of the room at large. "He killed Emily."

"Logan killed Emily," Lulu said.

"Logan killed Emily on Diego's orders," Nikolas yelled, moving towards Diego.

"I must advise against that, Princely One," Spinelli said, reluctantly letting go of Georgie and standing up. "As The Senior Sir pointed out, this is a crime scene."

Nikolas gave him a murderous look, but Spinelli knew the crime scene had to be preserved.

"He's right, Nikolas," Nadine said.

"I don't care," Nikolas snarled, moving closer to Diego.

"He's helpless," Lulu said urgently. "Nikolas, he's already dying."

"As long as he's alive there's still hope for the paramedics to save him; I intend to make sure they're too late."

"Spinelli," Georgie said urgently.

Spinelli ran to Nikolas and grabbed him. Nikolas was surprised, which dampened his anger slightly.

"Be careful, Mr. Jackal," Nadine said, obviously trying to sound calmer than she felt. "He's having a blackout. I can tell by his eyes."

"Let me go!" Nikolas demanded through clenched teeth.

"I'm afraid I can't do that, Sir. I can't let you kill the Son of Evil Al; you could go to jail for murder. It would be different if he was still a threat, but-"

Nikolas punched him in the face. Spinelli reflexively defended himself, grabbing and bending Nikolas's elbow and wrist. Nikolas screamed and fell, but Spinelli caught him before he hit the floor. With Mike's help, they got him into the booth across from Georgie. Lulu sat next to him, talking calmly, and Spinelli and Mike sat with Georgie to wait for the cops.

Nadine went to check on Diego. As she bent to take his pulse, Nikolas took a breath and looked around.

"What happened?"

"You had another blackout. Spinelli tried to stop you from killing Diego and messing up the crime scene and you punched him in the face."

Nikolas looked at Spinelli's face, which was beginning to swell. Mike ran to the kitchen to get some ice.

"Spinelli, I am so sorry! I-"

"It's OK," Spinelli said with a slight grin. "I'll consider it Jackal PI's first war wound and wear it with pride."

"PI?" Nikolas asked.

"In a few weeks I'll have my license."

"You would have been too late, anyway, Nikolas," Nadine said as she sat next to Lulu. "While we were arguing about whether or not you were gonna kill him, he died on his own.

That mixture of horror and relief came back to Spinelli again. He had killed someone. It had been an accident, and self-defense, but he'd actually killed someone. He wished Jason were here. He never felt more like the grasshopper in his life.


	19. Chapter 19

The cops finally arrived and began collecting evidence. Mack, Lucky, Harper and Rodriguez took everyone's statements. Two paramedics carried Diego's body out while another examined Georgie.

"She has a minor concussion," he said. "She doesn't wanna go to the hospital. Will someone be able to stay with her at home?"

"I can't leave this investigation," Mack said to Spinelli. "Will you stay with her, either at our house or your apartment."

"Most assuredly," Spinelli said quietly, looking at Georgie with a sense of enormous relief that a concussion was her only injury. This could have ended with all their deaths!

"Go on," Mack said to the rest of the cops when they were done. "I'll be back at the station shortly."

Nikolas, Lulu and Nadine left to go back to Wyndemere. Lulu and Nadine wanted Nikolas to get some rest. Against one of them he might have had a chance of winning an argument, but the two of them together on the same side were a force to be reckoned with. Mike began cleaning up. Georgie and Spinelli offered to help, but he refused, saying Georgie needed rest and reminding Spinelli that he'd promised to see that she got it. Lucky stayed with Mack and Spinelli didn't ask why. He figured it was none of his business.

"You do know," Mack said to Spinelli, "that your boss is partly responsible for this."

"Mack," Georgie began.

"Jason killed Diego's father, Georgie! He wanted to kill Maxie! He wanted revenge on her for sending him to prison, but Jason and Sonny are the cause of Alcazar and his son being in Port Charles to begin with; they're all part of the mob! If Coop hadn't beaten him to it-"

"Spinelli saved all three of us from Diego! He made sure Diego will never hurt anyone again! Don't take Maxie's death out on Spinelli."

"Jason's in the hospital," Lucky said. "Apparently he broke the window to save Elizabeth and then left Sam to go over the bridge-"

"I was there," Spinelli cut him off angrily. "Stone Cold went after the car; that was how Diego got away and Jackal PI followed him."

"You're a PI now?" Mack asked.

"I'll be certified in a few weeks. Why is Stone cold in the hospital?"

"He damaged his hands," Lucky said.

Spinelli remembered then That Elizabeth had told him that Jason had badly injured his hands when he broke the glass to save them from the car.

"Is Sam OK?"

"She's fine; I managed to pull her up after she got out of the car."

"Before you go, Spinelli," Mike said after Lucky and Mack left, "is there any news on Michael?"

Spinelli didn't hesitate. Stone Cold was in the hospital and The Senior Sir was the Little Dude's grandfather. Michael had to be found and brought home to the people who loved him. Scared little boys should not be without their families.

He showed Mike the footage he'd gotten from the security camera.

"Why would he be running from the docks? What's he so afraid of?"

"Um," Spinelli began, licking his lips, "Stone cold found gun oil in Young Michael's backpack. We- um, we think he accidentally shot The Fashionista."

"Oh no," Mike said quietly. "I saw him buying bullets on the docks. I made him toss them into the water; he must have gotten more somehow."

"Do you have any idea where he went after he left the docks?" Georgie asked Spinelli.

"According to the footage, he hid on a cargo ship, then got off. I'm sure I can Jackal into the security cameras to see where he went after that; I was gonna have Stone cold look at the footage with me because-"

"Jason can't help us now, and even if he could Michael would run from any of us; Sonny, me, Jason or Carly."

"He won't run from you or me," Georgie told Spinelli.

"But you're injured; you need to rest."

"Can you find him?" Mike asked. "I'll stay with Georgie until you get back."

"Go," Georgie said, sympathetic to Spinelli's mixed feelings. He wanted to find Michael, but he didn't want to leave Georgie. "I'll be OK with Mike until you bring Michael back."

"I'll find him," he promised Mike.

He gave Georgie a quick kiss before heading for the docks, the last place Michael had been seen. To his surprise, he didn't have to hack into the security cameras again. The Little Dude was much closer than any of them had expected.

Michael sat on the docks, making himself as small as possible, not knowing where to go or what to do. He'd killed Kate. How could he face his father? He had originally planned to hide on a cargo ship, but was afraid of being caught. If he'd been caught, he might have been sent to the police. He'd been hiding on the docks for hours, staying in the shadows, trying to keep himself small and stay out of sight after running away and hiding until Kate was taken away. He'd seen Sonny holding her and crying and knew he'd just become a murderer.

He wished he could go home. He also wished he could be anywhere but home. His confusion and fear froze him in place. Someone might see him and tell Sonny. Maybe that would be best. Maybe Sonny or Carly would come looking for him.

"Michael?" a voice asked gently.

The voice was familiar, but not easily placed because Michael didn't talk to him often. He looked up to see Spinelli standing over him, smiling sympathetically. Spinelli would tell Jason. Michael wanted to run, but he also wanted to see Jason and his parents. He didn't know what to do.

"Greetings, Little Dude."

"Hi," Michael said hesitantly.

"Your Uncle Jason and your parents have been looking for you; they're very worried."

"They don't know what I did."

"Jason knows you accidentally shot Kate Howard," he said gently.

"He does?"

Michael wanted to cry. They would never forgive him.

He spoke gently and clearly, not wanting to confuse Michael with nicknames. The poor kid was scared and Spinelli wanted to make sure he understood every word he told him.

"They love you, Michael. They know it was an accident, and I'm sure Ms. Howard does, too."

"I killed her."

"No, she's alive."

"I saw the blood; I felt it."

"She's alive," Spinelli insisted, still gently.

Michael wondered how he could be so gentle and sympathetic to someone who had done something as bad as Michael had.

"I was trying to get rid of it. I tried to put it in the dumpster and it went off; I didn't mean to-"

"I know and so do they."

"I just bought it to protect my mom and Morgan."

"It's over, Michael. You don't have to protect them anymore. Diego Alcazar was killed today and Logan Hayes has been dead for weeks."

"But what about the Zacchara's?"

"Your father and Jason have to take care of that and they will."

"But what I did was so bad!"

"I wanna show you something."

He sat next to Michael, took off his shoe and sock and showed the boy the scar on his foot.

"I accidentally shot myself last summer. I wanted to be like Jason, so I took his gun and tried to use it."

"You didn't know how either?"

"I thought I did. I'd spent hours in an arcade."

Michael looked incredulous.

"I know, I found out the hard way, a real gun and an arcade gun are nothing alike. I thought I knew what I was doing, but I didn't."

"But you only hurt your foot; I shot someone in the chest."

"But my point is that what I did could have been so much worse. I could have shot myself somewhere else and accidentally killed myself, or someone could have walked in and I might have shot them instead. None of that even occurred to me because I was so sure I knew what I was doing. I got cocky and ended up getting hurt. Not only that, but Jason took the blame so I wouldn't go to jail; it was illegal for me to be using his gun. I was afraid to go to prison, so he said he accidentally shot me and ended up doing community service. I not only hurt myself, but I got my friend in trouble, too. I made a mistake and I learned from it. Guns are not the way to solve problems. I can't be like someone else because some people don't like me the way I am. I can't protect the people I love by killing someone else. I had no business holding a gun without knowing how to use it. I learned that I can't find the answers to all my problems online or in a video game. You could have killed Ms. Howard, but you didn't. She's out of surgery and she's going to live. You made a mistake, Michael, and it could have been a lot worse than it is, and you know that and you'll learn from this horrible experience."

He put his sock and shoe back on and continued.

"I can't even tell you honestly that my motives were pure like yours; protection had little to do with it. I thought I could impress Lulu with my protective prowess and she would choose me over Logan."

"I'll never pick up a gun again as long as I live."

"You've learned from your mistake, too, then."

"I wanna go home, but I'm afraid. My dad said if I ever went near a gun I should turn and run, so I did."

"Parents tell their kids things that they don't mean in the heat of the moment. Everyone's been really worried about you."

"Did Jason send you to look for me? Where is he?"

"He got hurt stopping Diego, but he's gonna be OK. Your grandfather sent me. Would you like me to take you to him? He'll be relieved to see you and he can take you to your parents."

Michael hesitated.

"Michael, you don't have to be afraid anymore," Spinelli said gently, putting his hand on his shoulder. "Your family loves you; they wanna see you."

"Grandpa Mike saw me buying the bullets. He made me toss them, but I kept one."

"He knows it was an accident; they all do. Come back with me, please, and show him you're safe?"

Michael hesitated a bit longer. Spinelli could see his conflict. Finally, reluctantly, he nodded.

Back at Kelly's, Spinelli and Georgie watched, smiling, as Mike and Michael hugged. None of them knew that this would be one of the last happy moments Michael would have before all their lives were irrevocably altered by another bullet.


	20. Chapter 20

Spinelli went back to Mack's house to stay with Georgie and monitor her concussion. He kept her awake by talking with her about Ibiza. When Mack got off duty, Spinelli went to the hospital to see Jason.

He arrived to find Carly and Elizabeth arguing outside Jason's room. Patrick was talking to him and had sent both of them outside. Carly was blaming Elizabeth for the injuries to Jason's hands.

"Has Jason had you looking for Michael?" Carly asked when she saw Spinelli.

Before he could answer, Patrick told them they could go in.

"I have to have surgery," Jason said.

Carly glared at Elizabeth.

"Don't start, Carly," Jason said firmly. "It's Diego's fault, not Elizabeth's."

Carly opened her mouth to say something, but doubled over in pain.

"Oh God!" she gasped, holding her stomach.

"What's wrong?" Spinelli asked.

"Is it the baby?" Jason asked.

"Baby?"

"She's pregnant, but having trouble; she may be having a miscarriage."

As soon as Carly had doubled over, Elizabeth had rushed to get a doctor. Kelly came running in and ordered a gurney. Carly needed a room, now. Elizabeth went to call Jax. Jason tried to get out of bed to be with Carly, but Epiphany wouldn't allow it; she threatened to sedate him if he tried.

"Do you have anything on Michael?" Jason asked Spinelli when they were alone.

"I found him. The Little Dude is at Kelly's with his grandfather, unless The Senior Sir has taken him to Mr. Corinthos, Sir, by now."

"Thank you," Jason said with relief. "How'd you find him so fast?"

"Jackal PI put himself in The Little Dude's shoes. I'm scared and I wanna run away, but I also wanna see my parents. I went to the docks because that was the last place he'd been seen and saw a small figure there, sitting for a long time, so I went to talk to him. I convinced him to go back to Kelly's with me. Then The Senior Sir could take him to see his parents and he'd have familial support when he faced them."

"Where's he been?"

"He took shelter on a cargo ship at first, but then was afraid he'd get caught. He was totally at a loss for what to do, so he'd just been sitting on the docks, trying to hide, until I found him."

He took a deep breath and looked Jason in the eyes, wondering how he could have handled the Diego situation differently.

"What?" Jason asked, knowing Spinelli was about to tell him something important and seeing that he was upset.

"Um, The Jackal has news of The Son of Evil Al. He, um, He's dead."

"What happened?"

"I followed him after you went to save Sam after the car went over the bridge. He went to Kelly's with intent to kill Gentle Georgie and The Blonde One. They and The Senior Sir were the only occupants at the time. The Senior Sir had a knife, but The Evil One was holding Georgie and Lulu by the necks and he was understandably afraid to act for fear of injuring one of them. I made the evildoer angry enough with me to release them and when he did I attacked. Senior Sir accidentally dropped his knife when he went to call the police and when I kicked Diego's legs out from under him, he- um, he-"

"What?" Jason asked, looking concerned at Spinelli's expression.

"He fell on the knife," Spinelli finished quietly. "He died while we were waiting for the cops and paramedics. I- I didn't mean to kill him."

"It was an accident."

"But I'm not sorry he's dead. My intent was to disable, not kill; one minute I think I should be sorry and I feel awful for being glad he's dead and the next I think he deserved what he got. But no matter how unintentionally, no matter how deserving he might have been, I killed someone. Shouldn't I be sorry? Shouldn't I feel-"

"He did deserve what he got and you did what had to be done. Don't beat yourself up over this, Spinelli; you saved three lives today; you should be proud of yourself."

Spinelli smiled with relief, thinking of Georgie and his sudden realization in the sewer that if he had to, he would find a way to kill Diego before he let him hurt the woman he loved. Jason was right. Diego had to die or more innocent lives would have been taken. The danger from the Text Message Killer was finally over.

"Jason," Nadine said, coming in with a stretcher. "it's time for your surgery."

Spinelli wished Jason luck, then Nadine wheeled him off to the OR and Spinelli went in the opposite direction to see Jolene.

He sat with her and talked to her for a while, telling her everything that had happened today. He had also begun talking to Kendra when he visited Jolene. He told her now that she could always ask him or tell him anything and never to be afraid to talk to him. One of the most important things he was learning in his parenting classes was how to communicate with his child. He hoped never to have a lack of communication like the one that had caused Michael to be so scared to face his father that he'd run away from home. The last thing in the world he ever wanted was for his daughter to be afraid of him.

The next few weeks were relatively quiet, by Port Charles standards. Spinelli regretfully informed Jason that Monica had been the one to hit Sam. Jason had confronted her, she had gotten into another accident and realized she was out of control and pled guilty to hitting Sam. With the support of Sam, Nikolas and her family, she was sentenced to a detox program.

Sonny made a truce with Johnny and everything was peaceful, until April fourth.

Jason needed to have surgery in Seattle. He needed two and they both had to be performed by a specialist whose field was micro surgery. But he was back by the time Sonny made the tragic mistake of supervising a shipment with Michael without guards.

Spinelli was just leaving his yoga class when his cell rang. Jason was frantic, but only Spinelli and the rest of the people closest to him would have known. Michael had been shot. The theory was that someone had tried to kill Sonny and had accidentally gotten Michael because he was in the same room. Jason wanted Spinelli to access security footage around the warehouse to see if they could identify the shooter.

Spinelli's mind couldn't focus. He couldn't stop thinking that he'd just talked to Michael a few weeks ago. He also thought of his daughter. Carly and Sonny must be in agony; he couldn't imagine himself and Kendra in Michael's or his parents' position. Also, The Valkyrie had lost the child she'd been carrying the day Diego had been killed. She had lost one child; Spinelli didn't want her to lose Michael, too. As a parent to be, and as a human being, Spinelli thought that was just too much pain for one person, and in such a short amount of time.

A few hours later, Georgie came to see him.

"I heard about Michael. It's all over the news."

"He's out of surgery. Stone Cold says it went well."

She hugged him, wishing she could do something to take away his anxiety. They sat on the couch and she put an arm around him.

"He's twelve," he said. "He's only twelve years old and some brainless adult decides that just because they have a grudge against his father it's OK to-"

He stopped and took a deep breath, realizing his voice was rising. He didn't mean to raise his voice to Georgie; he wasn't angry with her.

"I'm sorry," he said softly.

"Don't be," she said gently, rubbing his back. "It makes me angry, too."

"I wish I could stop thinking about what his poor parents must be going through."

"BJ's death killed Bobby and Tony. I don't know how Mack and my mom made it through Maxie's funeral; if I was a wreck, I can't imagine how they must have felt, but they never showed it. I wouldn't have been able to get through it if you hadn't been there."

He sighed.

"I can't risk putting Kendra in this position. I can't risk her being shot for me, or me being shot and leaving her without me."

"You're leaving the organization, aren't you?"

He nodded.

"I'm so relieved!" she said, tightening her grip.

"I'm gonna tell Stone Cold as soon as we have time to talk. He says he's gonna spend the night with The Valkyrie at Michael's bed side. But before I leave, I wanna help find Michael's shooter."

"I can understand that. Just be careful, please?"

"I will," he promised.

The next day, Jason asked Spinelli to meet him at the penthouse.

"Patrick says Michael seems to be in a permanent coma," Jason said gravely.

"Oh no!" Spinelli said softly. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Have you got the footage from the security cameras?""

Yes, but nothing has turned up."

They went over it together and Jason saw something Spinelli had missed before. A car with Doctor's tags had been on the peer during the time of the shooting and had driven into the coffee warehouse. He traced it to Dr. Ian Devlin, a newcomer to Port Charles. He also found out, from Devlin's financial records, that Nikolas had paid him ten million dollars. Jason got up to go question him, but stopped and stared intently at Spinelli.

"Is there anything else I can do?" Spinelli asked, unnerved by the intensity of Stone Cold's stare.

Jason was silent for a moment.

"Don't fall into this trap," he finally said softly. "That's what this business is; it's one huge death trap. It kills everything it touches. I can't be with the woman I love, or my own son, because of this life. It's too late for me to get out of it. Elizabeth asked me if I was choosing it over them, but I made this decision long before I even met her. The choices I made hurt Michael."

"You did not put him in that bed."

"I brought him into this life, Spinelli! Sonny and Carly and I chose this life; Michael didn't have choices! You're my friend; I don't want this for you! I don't want you to end up shot like Michael. I don't want you to have to go through with Kendra what Carly and Sonny are going through now with Michael. You've got your PI license. Use that; make a business for yourself. Get out of this before you get in so deep that you'll never be able to leave. Remember the day you stopped me from killing Trevor? You said you were thinking of me as a friend and a brother; that's how I'm thinking of you now. Get out of this while you can. We're not gonna stop being friends just because you leave the organization and it's not a question of your loyalty; I've never questioned that. It's a question of your safety, and of your daughter's safety and what's best for both of you. I want you both to be safe and happy and this business will take that away from you before you even know you've lost it."

Spinelli was silent. He'd been meaning to tell Jason he was going to leave, but he wanted to wait until they found the shooter first. With everything else going on, his plans for the future were the last thing he wanted Jason to be thinking about. Now he realized Jason needed to know.

"OK," he said quietly. "I'll help you find Michael's shooter; I'll pull away slowly. By the end of the year, I'll be out of the business. By then I'll have enough professional experience as a PI that I'll be confident enough in myself to make it on my own and I'll have enough money to start my own PI business. Necessary purchases over the past few months have depleted my savings; I'm not asking for a raise, just stating the facts."

"You find Michael's shooter and I'll double your pay; I mean it. It's worth a lot more than that to me to find the person who shot Michael. It's worth more than money, but it's the only way I can show you-"

"I'd find him even if you didn't pay me. That coward is not going to get away with shooting a little boy."

Later, Lulu and Georgie showed up at the same time at Spinelli's apartment. They both noticed that he was distracted and upset.

"Jason told you about Michael?" Lulu asked.

Spinelli nodded.

"Did something else happen?" Georgie asked.

"He appears to be in a permanent coma," he sighed. "Stone Cold is as devastated as Michael's parents."

"Did you tell him?" Georgie asked hesitantly.

"Tell him what?" Lulu asked.

"I'm leaving the business. I didn't have to tell him; he begged me to get out while I still could. I told him I'd be completely out of it by the end of the year; I need to pull away slowly."

"Why?" Georgie asked.

"For one thing, my savings have been depleted considerably by all the necessities I've bought in preparation for Baby Kendra's arrival. I need to hone my skills as Jackal PI before I start my own business; I also need the finances. Stone Cold said if I find Michael's shooter, which I will even without the extra incentive, he'd double my pay until I'm able to leave. Besides, with the unfortunate departure, and subsequently the untimely death, of Nurse Epiphany's son, I'm their only tech support. I don't want to leave them until they can find someone to replace The Jackal."

"No one can replace The Jackal," Georgie said affectionately, giving him a hug.

He smiled.

"They know Johnny didn't do it, right?" Lulu asked. "I mean, you know he didn't; you saw us together on-"

"Just because he didn't pull the trigger doesn't mean he or someone else in the Zacchara organization didn't break the truce and try to kill Mr. Corinthos, Sir!"

"Why are you defending Johnny Zacchara?" Georgie demanded.

"Because he didn't do it," Lulu said passionately.

"So he didn't actually shoot Michael, but like Spinelli said-"

"Johnny was as surprised as I was when Spinelli told us! Tell her, Spinelli."

"He was, but that doesn't mean he didn't arrange the hit and the hit went wrong."

"He would never target a child!"

"What if Sonny was the target?" Georgie asked.

"That is the most likely scenario," Spinelli said.

"Then it was an accident," Lulu said.

"He's your next bad boy, isn't he?" Georgie asked angrily. "Logan wasn't bad enough? You have to-"

"I'm not gonna sit here and listen to this," Lulu said furiously, jumping to her feet. "I'll talk to you later," she said to Spinelli before storming out of the apartment.

Spinelli seemed too distracted to pay much attention to Lulu's sudden departure.

"I'm sorry," Georgie said. "She just frustrates me."

He nodded absently.

"Spinelli, what else is bothering you?"

"I keep seeing Stone cold's face when he asked me not to fall into the death trap that is the business. He- I've never seen him like he was today. He seemed so-" he spread his hands. "He seemed so defeated! He blames himself and only himself for what happened to Michael."

She began to rub his shoulders. He was so tense!

"I'm sure they're all gonna blame themselves. They're gonna question every decision they ever made where Michael is concerned. Remember me the night Maxie died? I almost had myself convinced that if I'd been nicer to her that morning she would have still been alive."

He nodded.

"I need to find Michael's shooter before Kendra's born. I don't want that monster living in the same world as my Innocent One, or any other child for that matter."

"Do you think it was the Zacchara's?"

"I don't know yet. We have a lead, but it doesn't seem to connect to them. In this business, however, you never know."

Lulu sat in the park, thinking about Georgie's question. "Johnny's your next bad boy, isn't he?" She didn't want a bad boy, but she couldn't seem to stay away from Johnny. Now he was complicating things by buying into Luke's business. But she also couldn't stop thinking about Spinelli and wishing she'd chosen him in the first place. Now he was with Georgie and they were happy together. She wouldn't hurt him by trying to come between them, but she couldn't stop her feelings either. Now she had some idea of how Spinelli must have felt when she'd chosen Logan.

She'd been spending more and more time with Spinelli over the past few months, when he wasn't with Georgie or doing something for Jason. But his attitude towards her had changed. He was no longer the worshipful guy who followed her around, trying everything to impress her. He was as respectful and protective as ever; his attitude was that of a brother, not someone who was in love with her. She'd hoped he'd fall back into his old patterns when she taught him how to dance, but he was reserved with her. He didn't want to dance with her the way he would have danced with Georgie; she was his girlfriend, not Lulu. On some level, Lulu realized she wanted Spinelli now partly because she couldn't have him, but she honestly did love him. But what could she do? She'd already hurt Georgie once by stealing the man she loved, but Georgie and Spinelli were not married. But Georgie was going to Ibiza in a few months. Lulu only hoped she'd have a chance then to make Spinelli see that they'd been meant to be together the whole time. Lulu knew it now; she just needed to get Spinelli alone once Georgie was gone so she could remind him of what he'd known long before she did.


	21. Chapter 21

Solving the case of Michael's shooting consumed most of Spinelli's time over the next few weeks. There was no footage of the actual shooting, but Spinelli's every instinct screamed at him that Ian Devlin was the shooter. But why? What could Mr. Corinthos, Sir, possibly have done to him that would make Devlin want to kill him? Where was the connection?

Spinelli hacked into the police department and read the police report. The bullet had ricocheted and hit Michael. Sonny had been the intended target. But it still didn't make sense. Why did Ian Devlin want Sonny dead? He didn't seem to have any connections to the mob.

Jason had told Spinelli that Nikolas had paid Devlin for an illegal drug to slow down the growth of his tumor, which had been causing hallucinations of Emily. That had been the reason for the ten million dollars that had appeared in Devlin's account from Nikolas's. Spinelli couldn't blame Nikolas, but at the same time he knew The Princely One had a child who needed him. Nikolas was playing games with his own life and it wasn't fair to Spencer. He hoped Nikolas came to his senses before he left his child an orphan.

After a decidedly fruitless search in Cyberspace for more information, Spinelli decided it was time to take action in the real world. He needed to get close to Devlin somehow and put a tracking device on him. He was pondering how to do it when his doorbell rang. The white-haired, slightly eccentric landlord had suddenly decided the apartments needed doorbells; that was all right with Spinelli. He always thought a doorbell sounded more polite than a knock, anyway, and if a doorbell rang it was less likely to wake Kendra when she was born.

"Hi," he said happily, hugging Georgie, who had brought dinner.

"You haven't eaten," she said with finality.

"How did you know?"

"I know you; when you get busy, you forget to eat or sleep. You look exhausted."

He sighed and rubbed his eyes.

"You're right; I haven't slept much in the last couple of days. I have a lead, but it makes no sense. I need to take action outside Cyberspace; I'm just not sure how to do what I'm planning."

"Can I help?"

He hesitated. He trusted her implicitly, but he didn't want to put her in danger.

"I know you're worried about me, but I promise to be careful. Please, I wanna help you."

The plan suddenly hit him and he grinned at her.

"I think there is something you can do."

His computer beeped.

"Wait a minute."

He looked at the alert and tried not to panic.

"He's leaving town; he's making arrangements to flee!"

"Who? Michael's shooter?"

"The suspect, yes. The police don't know who he is yet; they have no reason to suspect him. As I said, it makes no sense. Why would he shoot anyone?"

"Who is he?"

"Dr. Ian Devlin."

"What?"

"He was at the coffee warehouse that night; Stone Cold discovered the tags on his car. I saw the car, but missed the tags. Hold on; I need to call Stone Cold."

Spinelli couldn't reach him.

"This is not good."

"OK, slow down. What was your original plan? You said I could help. How?"

He outlined his plan and she gave him a hug, smiling proudly.

"You're brilliant! I can definitely help you stop him from leaving."

"How?"

She took out her cell phone and dialed a number.

"Dr. Ian Devlin, please."

She waited a few seconds.

"He's gone for the day?"

She pretended to sound frantic.

As she spoke, Spinelli accessed Devlin's travel plans. He was planning to leave by boat. They had to stop him or Little Michael might never be avenged.

"He's already gone," Georgie said apologetically when she hung up. "There's no chance of stopping him at the hospital."

"That's OK. I know where he's going. All we have to do is drive by the docks and we, The Jackal PI Investigative Team, will nail the suspect."

She smiled. She knew he was trying to boost his own confidence, as well as reassure her that it could be done.

They drove to the docks and got out of the car, watching carefully for Devlin. When he appeared, Spinelli doubled over and grabbed his abdomen.

"Help!" Georgie cried frantically. "We need a doctor!"

Devlin looked reluctant, but came over.

"What seems to be the trouble?"

"My boyfriend's really sick. I think it's his appendix!"

Devlin looked nervously at the harbor, clearly not wanting to miss his boat.

"I'm sorry, Miss, but I-"

"You're a doctor!" Georgie cried, faking near hysteria. "Help him!"

Devlin sighed and began to question Spinelli carefully. He had researched the symptoms of an appendicitis attack before going to the docks, so he was able to describe the symptoms accurately.

"You're right," Devlin told Georgie. "It is his appendix. He needs to get to a hospital, but I'm gonna miss my-"

"Please," Spinelli said, grabbing Devlin and faking terror, "don't leave me, kind physician!"

"He's really scared and he trusts you. Please, stay with him until the ambulance comes?"

Devlin looked over at the water again. His boat was just pulling out of the harbor. He nodded, looking angry and nervous.

At the hospital, Devlin tried to sedate Spinelli. He was no longer faking fear now; he hated needles. Devlin was becoming more and more annoyed with him, which was exactly what he wanted. He and Georgie had talked out the plan carefully.

"He's afraid!" Georgie said angrily when Devlin called him a weirdo. "You're supposed to be helping him and instead you're insulting him? How dare you call him a weirdo! You don't even know him!"

She grabbed the needle out of his hand and jabbed it into his arm. He dropped to the ground, asleep.

"Thanks," Spinelli said with relief.

"No problem."

He got down off the gurney and put the tracking device in Devlin's pocket. Then he and Georgie lifted him onto the gurney and Spinelli took off his scrubs and put them on himself. Georgie went to a supply closet and got some nurse's scrubs and put them on. This next part of the plan was risky. They couldn't risk anyone seeing their faces.

He and Georgie headed for the elevator, casually pushing the gurney as if they were a doctor and a nurse wheeling a patient to another floor. They made it down to the morgue, where Georgie kept a lookout while Spinelli hacked into the computer system and made it look as if his illness had been dealt with. Then Georgie went to a supply closet while Spinelli kept a lookout, both on Devlin and for someone who might be coming who could possibly discover them and blow their cover. She brought back a wheel chair and they wheeled Devlin out the front exit and to Spinelli's car. Then Georgie took the scrubs and the wheel chair back where they belonged.

They drove Devlin to his car near the docks and put him in it. When he woke up, he would think he'd just fallen asleep and missed his ride. With any luck, he would think the whole encounter with them was just a dream.

Spinelli's cell rang as they were driving back to his apartment. It was Jason, returning his call. Spinelli explained that he and Georgie had managed to stop Devlin from leaving.

"You got Georgie involved?" Jason asked angrily. "What were you thinking, Spinelli?"

"I'm sorry, Stone Cold, but I couldn't find you and I couldn't let him leave. Georgie was with me, so she helped Jackal PI carry out his plan, and it worked. There is now a tracking device in Ian Devlin's pocket. Jackal PI will know everywhere he goes, at least as long as he's wearing those pants. Georgie was in no danger; I wouldn't have agreed when she offered to help if I thought she wouldn't be safe. Honestly, I couldn't have pulled it off without her."

They beamed at each other as, on the other end of the phone, Spinelli heard Jason give a resigned sigh.

"The tracking device was a good idea, but involving Georgie-"

"I didn't want to, but I couldn't do it alone. Stone Cold, with all due respect, you know I don't make a habit of intentionally endangering the people I love. If I thought there was even the slightest chance that Georgie would have been hurt I would have tried to come up with some other way that didn't involve her."

"I'm sorry," Jason said quietly. "You're right. Where's Devlin now?"

Georgie was driving so Spinelli could monitor the tracking device.

"He's still in his car, probably still sedated."

"You sedated him?" Jason sounded surprised and a little amused. "How did you pull that off?"

"Well, we had to go to the hospital and sedate him. I faked an appendicitis attack and purposely annoyed him, then Georgie gave him the shot that was meant for me and we put him back in his car after I put a tracking device in his pants."

Jason had to admire the kid's resourcefulness. He didn't like his involving Georgie, but considering that he'd been trapped in a cabin with Claudia fighting off a killer, Jason couldn't fault Spinelli for doing what he thought was necessary.

"OK, let me know if anything develops."

"OK."

"You did good, Spinelli," he said honestly before hanging up.

Spinelli beamed.

Later, Spinelli called Jason with an update. Devlin had gone to Sonny's compound. Soon after, a million dollars had been transferred from Kate Howard's business account to Devlin's account. Devlin was leaving town again and had somehow gotten Kate to give him the money.

Jason met Spinelli at the penthouse and they took The Mob Mobile to follow the tracking device. They caught up with Devlin at a bus stop, where he held a scalpel to Spinelli's throat.

"Your little sidekick here is my insurance policy," Devlin told Jason. "We're gonna take a little ride and you're gonna let us go. One wrong move and he dies."

He turned his attention to Spinelli, foolishly taking his eyes off Stone Cold. Spinelli could feel the Dastardly Doctor trembling and prayed his hand wouldn't slip and accidentally cut the throat of Kendra's terrified father before she was even born.

At the thought of Kendra, Spinelli's fear was forced to the back of his mind.

"Do you know how sharp a scalpel is?" Devlin asked, trying and failing to sound casual.

Spinelli brought up his knee and hit Devlin where no man wants to be hit. Devlin dropped the scalpel and Jason shot him as he doubled over in pain from Spinelli's inflicted injury. He felt he had to shoot to keep Devlin from picking up the scalpel and killing Spinelli for defending himself.

"Why did you shoot Michael?" Jason demanded, standing over Devlin. "Why would a doctor wanna kill Sonny and risk shooting a little boy?"

"Zacchara," Devlin managed, then died.

Jason was a thunderhead.

"They broke the truce!"

Spinelli nodded.

"What are we gonna do with him?"

Jason blew out his breath, wishing there was a way to keep Spinelli out of this part for his own protection. Spinelli was a witness, which also made him an accessory, the last thing Jason ever wanted for him.

"We can't call the cops; we have to hide the body."

He paused and looked at Spinelli.

"You shouldn't be anymore involved in this than you already are; maybe you should-"

"The Jackal will not abandon his friend and mentor!"

He was as surprised as Jason by the sharpness in his tone.

"You were defending me," he said in a more normal voice. "You saved my life. We're in this together."

Jason nodded, giving him a rare smile.

"What will we do with the body?"

Jason honestly was grateful for Spinelli's loyalty, but he couldn't let him be involved in covering up a murder.

"Spinelli, you're trying to get out of the mob; if I let you-"

Spinelli knew this was one of the stories he would never want Kendra to hear, but he couldn't and wouldn't abandon Jason now. Devlin had gotten what he deserved for what he did to Michael, and he had tried to kill Spinelli. Jason had acted in defense of his friend, but had also gotten both justice and a bit of revenge. Spinelli didn't wish death on anyone, but Ian Devlin could not be allowed to live if he had so little regard for human life that he would risk hurting a child just to kill his father. The fact that he was, hypocritically, a doctor made Spinelli's blood boil. He knew it would be better for him to let Jason take it from here alone, but he couldn't refuse to see this through after being part of it. He felt Jason might not have had to kill him if Spinelli's life hadn't been in danger. Jason had killed him for Spinelli and Kendra, as well as Michael. Spinelli couldn't repay that act with abandonment.

"I already know about what you did to Evil Al, Stone Cold; you told me the day Sam and Elizabeth were kidnapped by Darth Diego. This time you killed Devlin to save me. I'm in this with you!"

"OK," he said reluctantly, then paused for thought. "I'm gonna drive Devlin's car and get rid of the body. I want you to send an email from Devlin's account to Dr. Ford at General Hospital."

Spinelli started to say something, but Jason cut him off.

"You're already an accessory; I don't want you getting any deeper into this than you already are. You wanna help me and I appreciate that; you can help me by sending the email telling Dr. Ford what I'm gonna tell you. You do that while I'm getting rid of the evidence, then wait for me in the car."

He pointed to the SUV. Spinelli nodded, knowing Jason would never tell him what would be done with the body. His friend and mentor was trying to protect him, as usual. He knew intellectually that it was for the better; the less he knew, the less trouble he could get into with the police. He was already more deeply involved than either he or Jason wanted; it was best that he do nothing more than send one email and be done with the Dastardly Dr. Devlin. He didn't want Kendra having to visit him in prison.

As he clicked send, he looked up to see Jason coming towards him. He knew the reason Stone Cold hadn't called the police and told them he'd killed Devlin to save Spinelli. Devlin had implicated the Zacchara's in Michael's shooting. Sonny and Jason would want to handle this themselves and didn't want the cops involved. Thinking of Kendra and the possibility that he could have ended up in a situation like Sonny, Carly and Jason, he was relieved that he was taking steps to get out. For the first time since he'd begun working for the mob, he was getting a real taste of what it was really like and he didn't like it. He only wished Jason could find a way out, too, so he could have the life he wanted.

The next afternoon, Georgie met him for lunch at Kelly's and told him that Devlin had sent an email to the hospital saying that Port Charles was too intense for him and that he needed to get out, not liking the mob situation. He could tell that she had her suspicions about what really happened, but he was grateful that she didn't ask. The closest she came was asking what it meant for Spinelli and Jason now that their suspect was gone. Spinelli had thought carefully the night before about how he would answer that question, knowing she would ask.

"Jackal PI is still monitoring the Fiendish Physician's finances. If we find proof that he shot Michael, we'll have an idea of where to find him."

It wasn't exactly a lie; Jason had told him to keep monitoring Devlin's accounts. If the Zacchara's, or anyone else, used those accounts, Spinelli would know.

"Spinelli, I will be so glad when you're out of this business. Devlin might have hurt you; he looked close to it when you were in the hospital and-"

"But he didn't, in part thanks to my genius girlfriend and her quick reflexes."

They both smiled as he kissed her cheek, then his face turned serious. They were keeping their voices low, not wanting anyone to overhear them.

"I'll be relieved, too. Young Michael's tragedy has shown me how wrong I was about the glamour of mob life. I always knew it was dangerous, but it never crossed my mind that an innocent child could be struck down because he happened to be in the same room with his father. I was so happy to be accepted and valued that I was naïve about the rest of it. Ironically, if not for the mob, I would never have made friends with Lulu, or Stone Cold, or maybe even you. I wouldn't have tried to use a gun and shot myself in the foot, which means I never would have met Jolene and had Kendra. But now I can see the business taking me in directions I don't wish to go. I've seen what it's done to Stone Cold, Young Michael and his parents. Their past decisions have forever scarred their present and future and I don't want that for me or Kendra, or for you. I wanna be someone you and she can both be proud of."

"I'm already proud of you," she said, kissing him.

As they talked and ate lunch, neither knew of the events that would take place in the coming months. Each would have their own tests of faith and strength. Each would need the other to get through these tests. Together they would face more tragedy, happiness, fear and drama, including an obstacle that possibly had the power to destroy their relationship. Kendra's first year would be filled with changes and adjustments for everyone.


End file.
